No photo available
Crispy crust coral
Merulina ampliata
Valid name (WoRMS, AphiaID 207407, checked 2026-10-31).
- English
- Crispy crust coral
- Scientific
- Merulina ampliata
- Dhivehi
- No recorded Dhivehi name
- Group
- Hard corals
- Depth and habitat
- Reef-associated, recorded from 0 to 40 m
- IUCN status
- LC · Least ConcernLeast Concern (LC), assessed 2023CITES Appendix II
Description
A coral that forms thin plates, often with short upright branches, whose ridges and valleys fan out towards the plate edge. Colonies are usually brown, cream or green and grow on reef slopes and in lagoons.
In the Maldives
Recorded from the Maldives: museum specimens (n=4); iNaturalist research-grade observations in the Maldives (n=4); literature records via OBIS (Hexacorallians of the World (Fautin 2013), IndOBIS).
Sources
- sealifebase.se /summary/Merulina-ampliata.html
- marinespecies.org /aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=207407
- commons.wikimedia.org /wiki/File:Merulina_ampliata,_margen_colonia.jpg
Dhivehi name source: No species-level Dhivehi name found in Dhivehi Wikipedia, SeaLifeBase (country: Maldives) or MRS/MMRI invertebrate publications.