警告：以下是珊瑚分类法的潜水，乔·罗特特（Joe RowlettOld Town Aquariumin Chicago.
Historically, corals have often been grouped at the genus and family level based on morphological structures of the entire colony—for instance, whether a new polyp grows from inside (e.g.Favia）或外部（例如Favites) of the old polyp… or if the polyps are grouped together (e.g.Platygyra) or separate (e.g.Caulastrea). These morphological characters had the advantage of being easy to observe, but have now been shown to be misleading when it comes to the true evolutionary history of the stony corals.
当珊瑚研究人员开始使用分子数据来研究珊瑚进化时，他们的结果与数十年来使用的分类完全不符。这需要完全重写我们对生命珊瑚树的理解，其中许多物种，属和家庭被重新描述和重命名。该过程仍在进行中，并且可能要花十年或更长时间，然后出现新的稳定分类。
With this new framework of species’ relationships, researchers have now been able to more closely look for the more meaningful morphological traits that they had previously missed. What they have found is that the minute details of how the skeleton is secreted— the orientation of microscopic skeletal spines, the derivation of the polyp’s skeletal wall, etc. etc. etc.—is what matters most.
这对普通水产症的意义是，我们用于珊瑚的科学名称现在已经过时且不准确。在水族馆行业中，在零售商，批发商，业余爱好者和出版物中，分类学变化通常需要数年才能被公认和司空见惯。希望本文将有助于提高行业对未来情况的认识。
As this topic is a bit overwhelming when taken in its entirety, I’ll be focusing on the former Suborder Faviina, which includes common aquarium species like: brains, acans, scolys, chalices, blastos. Basically, most large-polyped stony corals (LPS). One major finding has been the importance of biogeography for classifying this group of corals, with Atlantic brain corals now placed in the Family Mussidae, and Indo-Pacific species in the Families Merulinidae and Lobophyllidae.
This has important implications for formerly circumtropical genera likeFavia和Montastrea, as new names had to be made for these unrelated Indo-Pacific species. Dipsastrea is now the correct name for Indo-Pacific “Favia”; Phymastrea is correct for the Indo-Pacific “Montastrea”. The former “Montastrea” has so far been split into three genera, with a fourth likely to come when more research is completed.
A similar change has taken place for Scolymia, with the three Atlantic species retaining that name. The former “Scolymia australis” is now Homophyllia australis. The former “Scolymia vitiensis” is now巴勒斯坦权力机构rascolymia vitiensis. And for good measure, it was determined that “Indophyllia” wasn’t really different enough from Cynarina to warrant its own genus, so it is now Cynarina macassarensis. (This last change is something we as aquarists new all along. Those two were always difficult to tell apart!) And “Acanthophyllia desheyesiana” is once again treated as just a variant ofCynarina lacrymalis.
Phew! That’s a lot of changes. How about some more…
In a brand new article by Arrigoni, et al. “Acanthastrea Bowerbanki“ 和 ”A. hillae” were shown to belong to their own independent—and as yet unnamed—genus. The same is true for the often-misidentified (and never collected for aquariums!!!) “Acanthastrea maxima”. Furthermore,A. faviaformiswas shown to not only not be anAcanthastrea, but it in fact belongs to an entirely different family of coral, Merulinidae. These are the kinds of major changes to classification that are becoming commonplace.
The species name “faviaformis” indicates that it resembles the genus “Favia”, and it turns out this resemblance is due to the fact that it is a “Favia”, or ratherDipsastrea. One final change is to the uncommonly seenA. ishigakiensis，最终将重命名为叶叶. With all the changes to this genus, it’s unfortunate that they have yet to study the commonA. lordhowensis. I think we’d all be a little heartbroken if that most iconic of “acans” turned out to not actually be one.
Chalice corals of the generaEchinophyllia和were shown to need further revision, as the two species ofOxyporaexamined have each independently evolved from withinEchinophyllia. The result of this is thatOxypora最终将被重命名为Echinophyllia, or certain species of each genus will change names. (This is, once again, a result most aquarists have long recognized. It can be damn difficult trying to identify these chalices to genus.)
叶叶和Symphylliaare two genera that are commonly confused by aquarists. And, as it turns out, this is becauseSymphylliaare derived from叶叶和will likely have to be renamed as such. [For those uninitiated with the nuances of classification, it is generally verboten to treat a group as separate if it is directly derived from another group. This is termed ‘Paraphyly’. Modern classifications do their best to eliminate these artificial groups, but there are still notable exceptions.For instance: the equal rank of birds, mammals, and reptiles in most classifications, when birds and mammals clearly evolved from reptiles.
But such discussions are neither here nor there for the topic at hand…] It also turns out that the recently renamed巴勒斯坦权力机构rascolymia vitiensisis deeply nestled in this group and will have to be renamed, presumably as “Lobophyllia vitiensis”. But this awaits a formal revision of the group, which will likely take a few more years. So enjoy saying巴勒斯坦权力机构rascolymiawhile you still can.
At a certain point the complexity and enormity of these changes gets to be overwhelming. Have I mentioned thatGoniastrea和Favites可能每个分成新属?或that there is likely to be a第三fourthblblymussaspecies—the soon-to-be-former巴勒斯坦权力机构rasimplastreaomanensis在遗传上与blblymussamerlettithat it is virtually indistinguishable, in spite of their differing morphology. And this is just one group of corals we are discussing!
The scope of what is being accomplished in rewriting the coral tree of life is truly impressive and unprecedented in zoological taxonomy. With this new information hidden away amongst obscure scientific journals, it is up to us as aquarists to stay informed and up-to-date on these continuing changes. Cheers.
