No photo available
Elephant skin coral
Pachyseris rugosa
Valid name (WoRMS, AphiaID 207292, checked 2026-10-31).
- English
- Elephant skin coral
- Scientific
- Pachyseris rugosa
- 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 serpent coral that forms upright, irregular plates and crests with fine, concentric ridges like fingerprints. Colonies are usually brown, grey or greenish and grow on reef slopes and in lagoons.
In the Maldives
Recorded from the Maldives: museum specimens (n=2); iNaturalist research-grade observations in the Maldives (n=3); literature records via OBIS (Hexacorallians of the World (Fautin 2013), IndOBIS); SeaLifeBase Maldives checklist.
Sources
- sealifebase.se /summary/Pachyseris-rugosa.html
- marinespecies.org /aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=207292
- commons.wikimedia.org /wiki/File:Pachyseris_rugosa_GBR_2.jpg
Dhivehi name source: No species-level Dhivehi name found in Dhivehi Wikipedia, SeaLifeBase (country: Maldives) or MRS/MMRI invertebrate publications.