Staghorn coral

Acropora cervicornis · The staghorn coral is a branching stony coral whose upright branches look like stag antlers, found in the Western Atlantic from the Florida Keys and Bahamas to the Caribbean.

Staghorn coral
Photo: Albert Kok at Dutch Wikipedia (Original text: albert kok), Public domain
Staghorn coral
Photo: National Marine Sanctuaries, Public domain
Staghorn coral
Photo: Symbiosis, CC BY 2.0

Taxonomy

KingdomAnimalia
PhylumCnidaria
ClassAnthozoa
OrderScleractinia
FamilyAcroporidae
GenusAcropora
SpeciesAcropora cervicornis

Where it lives

Shallow, clear-water reefs of Florida, the Bahamas and the Caribbean.

Fun facts

  • Staghorn coral grows so fast that it can add up to 5 cm of new skeleton for every 1 cm it already has each year.
  • Tiny algae living inside staghorn coral can supply up to 90% of its food needs, packed in at over 1 million cells per square centimeter.
  • At night, staghorn polyps use long tentacles to catch passing plankton, stunning it with stinging cells before moving it to the mouth.
  • Staghorn corals spawn in late summer, releasing eggs and sperm together a few days after a full moon in July and August.

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Facts and taxonomy adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).