Maldives Marine Life

Marine life of Maldivian waters

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Acropora coral (no English common name)
No photo available
Photo: MDC Seamarc Maldives / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (view on Wikimedia Commons)Photographed in the Maldives. Coral photo: species not verifiable from image.

Acropora coral (no English common name)

Acropora lutkeni

Valid name (WoRMS, AphiaID 206994, checked 2026-10-31).

English
Acropora coral (no English common name)
Scientific
Acropora lutkeni
Dhivehi
No recorded Dhivehi name
Group
Hard corals
Family
Acroporidae (staghorn, table and plate corals)
Depth and habitat
Reef-associated, recorded from 3 to 12 m
IUCN status
EN · EndangeredEndangered (EN), assessed 2023CITES Appendix II

Description

An Acropora coral: the largest and most varied genus of reef-building corals, forming branches, bushes, tables, plates and fingers. Each branch ends in a single larger cup with many small cups along its sides. Acropora grow fast and are among the first corals to die in marine heatwaves. It is told apart from related species only by close examination of the skeleton.

In the Maldives

Recorded from the Maldives: museum specimens (n=27, QM); literature records via OBIS (Hexacorallians of the World (Fautin 2013)); SeaLifeBase Maldives checklist.

Sources

Dhivehi name source: No species-level Dhivehi name found in Dhivehi Wikipedia, SeaLifeBase (country: Maldives) or MRS/MMRI invertebrate publications.