Definition
Evolution is a widely ranging subject, involving the fossil record, the taxonomic and systematic organization of extant taxa, and the genetic processes that appear to have given rise to those taxa. This article summarizes the main events in the evolution of modern corals, outlines the nature and variation in extant species, and reviews the evolutionary mechanisms most relevant to corals. These are the processes that lead to the taxonomic organization of species and give rise to the taxonomic issues which coral researchers inevitably face.
Fossil record
The first organisms that might be called scleractinians are known from Paleozoic fossils from China and Scotland (Ezaki, 1998), but the earliest proliferation of organisms that were clearly ancestral Scleractinia are Middle Triassic and consisted of at least seven, but possibly nine, suborders. These corals did not build reefs; they were small solitary or phaceloid organisms of the shallow Tethys of southern Europe and...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Bibliography
Beauvais, L., 1989. Jurassic corals from the circum-Pacific area. Memorial Association of Australasian Paleontologists, 8, 291–302.
Beauvais, L., 1992. Paleobiogeography of the Early Cretaceous corals. Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology, 92, 233–247.
Briggs, J. C., 1984. Centers of biogeography. University of Leeds, Leeds. Biography Monograph, Vol. 1.
Carson, H. L., 1971. Speciation and the founder principle. Stadler Genetics Symposium, 3, 51–70.
Craw, R., and Weston, P., 1984. Panbiogeography: a progressive research program? Systematic Zoology, 33, 1–13.
Craw, R., 1988. Panbiogeography: methods and synthesis. In Meyers, A. A., and Giler, P. S. (eds.), Analytical Biogeography. London: Chapman and Hall, pp. 405–435.
Croizat, L., 1981. Biogeography: past, present and future. In Nelson, G., and Rosen, D. E. (eds.), Vicariance Biogeography. A critique. New York: Columbia University Press, pp. 501–523.
Ezaki, Y., 1998. Paleozoic Scleractinia: progenitors or extinct experiments? Paleobiology, 24(2), 227–234.
Frost, S. H., 1981. Oligocene reef coral biofaces of the Vicentin, northeast Italy. Society of Economic Paleontology Mineralogy Special Publication, 30, 483–539.
Grant, V., 1981. Plant Speciation. New York: Columbia University Press.
Hennig, W., 1966. Phylogenetic Systematics. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Macarthur, R. H., and Wilson, E. O., 1963. An equilibrium theory of insular biogeography. Evolution, 17, 373–387.
Macarthur, R. H., and Wilson, E. O., 1967. The Theory of Island Biogeography. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Mayr, E., 1942. Systematics and the Origin of Species. New York: Columbia University Press.
McCoy, E. D., and Heck, K. L., 1976. Biogeography of corals, seagrasses and mangroves: an alternative to the centre of origin concept. Systematic Zoology, 25, 201–210.
Simberloff, D. et al., 1981. There have been no statistical tests of cladistic biogeographical hypotheses. In Nelson, G., and Rosen, D. E. (eds.), Vicariance Biogeography. A critique. New York: Columbia University Press, pp. 40–63.
Sober, E., 1988. The conceptual relationship of cladistic phylogenetics and vicariance biogeography. Systematic Zoology 37245–37253.
Stanley, G. D., 2003. The evolution of modern corals and their evolutionary history. Earth-Science Reviews, 60, 194–225.
Stanley, G. D., and Fautin, D. G., 2001. The origins of modern corals. Science, 291, 1913–1914.
Veron, J. E. N., 1995. Corals in Space and Time. New York: Cornell University Press.
Veron, J. E. N., 2000. Corals of the World. Australia: Australian Institute of Marine Science, Vol. 3.
Veron, J. E. N., 2002. Reticulate evolution in corals. Proceedings of the ninth International Coral Reef Symposium 2000. pp. 43–48.
Acknowledgments
The author thanks Dr. M.G. Stafford-Smith for critically reviewing the manuscript.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
About this entry
Cite this entry
Veron, J.E.N. (2011). Scleractinia, Evolution and Taxonomy. In: Hopley, D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Modern Coral Reefs. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2639-2_78
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2639-2_78
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-481-2638-5
Online ISBN: 978-90-481-2639-2
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Earth and Environmental Sciences