Revision of taxonomy of the zooxanthellate scleractinian corals based on the molecular data and the morphological data from present species and fossils

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 22370033
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Biodiversity/Systematics
• Research Institution: University of Miyazaki
• Principal Investigator: FUKAMI Hironobu 宮崎大学, 農学部, 准教授 (50402756)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): SUGIHARA Kaoru 独立行政法人国立環境研究所, 生物・生態系環境研究センター・特別研究院 (90320275) ; TACHIKAWA Hiroyuki 千葉県立中央博物館, 分館海の博物館, 主任 (90291111)
• Project Period (FY): 2010-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: イシサンゴ / 分類 / 系統 / 分子解析 / 化石

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The classical morphological-based taxonomy of the reef-building corals, which play an important role in forming the coral reefs, is in chaos at present because the skeletal characters, which are key characters for the classification of species and higher taxonomic ranks, are quite variable and instable. Therefore, new approach to revise the classical taxonomy of the corals has been required. In this study, we focused on the three families, “Faviidae” (=Merulinidae), Poritidae, and Dendrophylliidae, which taxonomy is much confusion in comparison with other families. Molecular phylogenetic analyses were applied into these families, and then based on the molecular data obtained, we searched which morphological key characters reflect on the molecular data. As the results, we succeeded the revision of the genus and family level of these corals, although it remains still many problems to resolve to define the species boundary.

Free Research Field

サンゴ分類系統