Orbicella_annularis
Orbicella annularis
Species of coral
Orbicella annularis, commonly known as the Boulder star coral, is a species of coral that lives in the western Atlantic Ocean and is the most thoroughly studied and most abundant species of reef-building coral in the Caribbean to date.[3] It also has a comprehensive fossil record within the Caribbean.[4][5] This species complex has long been considered a generalist that exists at depths between 0 and 80 meters[6] that grew into varying colony shapes (heads, columns, plates) in response to differing light conditions.[7] Only recently with the help of molecular techniques has O. annularis been shown to be a complex of at least three separate species.[8][9][10] Those species are divided into O. annularis, O. faveolata, and O. franksi. This coral was originally described as Montastraea annularis.