Table 2.
Skeletal characters for Acropora which were discernible in fossils, with their character states. (Scheme 1, character numbering used by Wallace (1999), scheme 2 that used by Wolstenholme et al. (2003). States include all known to be possible for extant material; no new states seen in the fossil specimens examined.)
| character | states | scheme | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | ||
| branch formation | around a single axial corallite/more than one axial corallite | 1 | — |
| branching orders | tertiary or later orders: present/not present | 2 | 1 |
| predominant outline | cuneiform/arborescent/hispidose/encrusting/elkhorn/corymbose/tabulara | 3 | 2 |
| coenosteum | same on and between radial corallites/different on and between radial corallites | 6 | 4 |
| coenosteum on radial corallites | costate or reticulo-costatea/open spinules | 7 | 5 |
| coenosteum between radial corallites | reticulo-costate/reticulatea/open spinules | 8 | 6 |
| radial corallite sizes | one size or graded/two distinct sizesa | 10 | 8 |
| radial corallite inner wall | developed/not developed/neither inner or outer wall developed | 11 | 9 |
| radial corallite shape | nariform/dimidiate/lipped/tubular/appressed tubulara/conical/rounded appressed/round tubular/immersed | 12 | 10 |
| radial corallites relative size | very large/large/medium/small | 16 | 13 |
| maximum branch thickness | >20 mm /20–25 mm/10–19.9 mm/<5–9.9 mm /2.5–4.9 mm/<2.5 mm | 17 | 14 |
| radial crowding | radials do not touch/some radials touch/radials crowded, touching | 20 | 17 |
a
Character states illustrated in figure 3.