Pectiniidae was a

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

of stony corals, commonly known as chalice corals, but the name is no longer considered valid.

Taxonomy

The "robust" stony coral families of

Faviidae Mussidae is a family of stony coral in the order Scleractinia. Following a taxonomic revision in 2012, the family is now restricted to species found in the Atlantic Ocean, with Pacific species transferred to the new family Lobophylliidae. Many ...

Merulinidae Merulinidae is a family of reef-building stony corals. Characteristics All the genera in this family are colonial, reef-building corals. Skeletal structures are similar to those of Faviidae but are highly fused, without paliform lobes. The vall ...

Mussidae Mussidae is a family of stony coral in the order Scleractinia. Following a taxonomic revision in 2012, the family is now restricted to species found in the Atlantic Ocean, with Pacific species transferred to the new family Lobophylliidae. Many ...

and Pectiniidae, have traditionally been recognised on morphological grounds but recent molecular analysis has shown that these families are

polyphyletic A polyphyletic group is an assemblage of organisms or other evolving elements that is of mixed evolutionary origin. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as homoplasies, which are explained as a result of conver ...

, the similarities between the species having occurred through

convergent evolution Convergent evolution is the independent evolution of similar features in species of different periods or epochs in time. Convergent evolution creates analogous structures that have similar form or function but were not present in the last com ...

. A revised classification, proposed in 2012, places the Pacific species of Mussidae in a new family, Lobophylliidae and retains the taxon Mussidae for the Atlantic species. In the revision, the genera '' Echinomorpha'', ''

Echinophyllia ''Echinophyllia'' is a genus of large polyp stony corals. Members of this genus are colonial corals and are generally foliaceous, usually with very thin leaves. They are native to the Indo-Pacific and are sometimes found in reef aquariums. Gen ...

'' and '' Oxypora'' were transferred from Pectiniidae to Lobophylliidae, and the genera '' Mycedium'', ''

Pectinia ''Pectinia'' is a genus of corals Corals are marine invertebrates within the class (biology), class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact Colony (biology), colonies of many identical individual polyp (zoology), polyps. C ...

'' and '' Physophyllia'' were transferred to Merulinidae. The family Pectiniidae was abolished.

Genera

The

World Register of Marine Species The World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) is a taxonomic database that aims to provide an authoritative and comprehensive list of names of marine organisms. Content The content of the registry is edited and maintained by scientific speciali ...

used to include the following

genera Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial ...

in the family: *'' Echinomorpha'' - Transferred to Lobophylliidae *''

'' - Transferred to Lobophylliidae *'' Mycedium'' - Transferred to Merulinidae *'' Oxypora'' - Transferred to Lobophylliidae *''

'' - Transferred to Merulinidae *'' Physophyllia'' - Transferred to Merulinidae

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3325042 Scleractinia Cnidarian families Obsolete animal taxa