Siderastreidae is a

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

of reef building

stony corals Scleractinia, also called stony corals or hard corals, are marine animals in the phylum Cnidaria that build themselves a hard skeleton. The individual animals are known as polyps and have a cylindrical body crowned by an oral disc in which a mo ...

. Members of the family include

symbiotic Symbiosis (from Greek , , "living together", from , , "together", and , bíōsis, "living") is any type of a close and long-term biological interaction between two different biological organisms, be it mutualistic, commensalistic, or parasit ...

algae called

Zooxanthella Zooxanthellae is a colloquial term for single-celled dinoflagellates that are able to live in symbiosis with diverse marine invertebrates including demosponges, corals, jellyfish, and nudibranchs. Most known zooxanthellae are in the genus ''Symbi ...

e in their tissues which help provide their energy requirements.

Description

Members of this family are colonial,

hermatypic Hermatypic corals are those corals in the order Scleractinia which build reefs by depositing hard calcareous material for their skeletons, forming the stony framework of the reef. Corals that do not contribute to coral reef development are referred ...

(reef-building) corals. The corals vary in form and include massive, thickly encrusting, columnar, and irregular forms. The

corallite A corallite is the skeletal cup, formed by an individual stony coral polyp, in which the polyp sits and into which it can retract. The cup is composed of aragonite, a crystalline form of calcium carbonate, and is secreted by the polyp. Corallit ...

s are linked by flowing

septa The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) is a regional public transportation authority that operates bus, rapid transit, commuter rail, light rail, and electric trolleybus services for nearly 4 million people in five coun ...

that have granular margins and that are fused in the centre to give fan-shaped or star-shaped groupings. The corallites do not project from the surface of the coral and have ill-defined walls formed from thickened septa.Family Siderastreidae
WetWebMedia.com. Retrieved 2011-12-18.

Genera

The World Register of Marine Species includes the following

genera Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nomenclat ...

in the family: * †'' Pironastraea'' d'Achiardi, 1875 ** †'' Pironastraea indica'' Duncan, 1880 * ''Pseudosiderastrea'' Yabe & Sugiyama, 1935 ** '' Pseudosiderastrea formosa'' Pichon, Chuang & Chen, 2012 ** '' Pseudosiderastrea tayami'' Yabe & Sugiyama, 1935 * ''Siderastrea'' de Blainville, 1830 – starlet corals''Siderastrea''
WoRMS ** †'' Siderastrea grandis'' Duncan, 1863 ** †'' Siderastrea radcliffi'' Faustino, 1931 ** ''

Siderastrea radians ''Siderastrea radians'', also known as the lesser starlet coral or the shallow-water starlet coral, is a stony coral in the family Siderastreidae. It is found in shallow parts of the western Atlantic Ocean as small, solid mounds or encrusting she ...

'' (Pallas, 1766) – lesser starlet coral or shallow-water starlet coral ** '' Siderastrea savignyana'' Milne Edwards & Haime, 1850 ** ''

Siderastrea siderea ''Siderastrea siderea'', commonly known as massive starlet coral or round starlet coral, is a stony coral in the family Siderastreidae. It is found in shallow parts of the western Atlantic Ocean as solid boulder-shaped or domed structures. Desc ...

'' (Ellis & Solander, 1768) – massive starlet coral or round starlet coral ** ''

Siderastrea stellata Siderastreidae is a family of reef building stony corals. Members of the family include symbiotic algae called Zooxanthellae in their tissues which help provide their energy requirements. Description Members of this family are colonial, hermat ...

'' Verrill, 1868

References

Cnidarian families Taxa named by T. Wayland Vaughan Taxa named by Bertram Whittier Wells {{scleractinia-stub