Monti ID Please

biggles

Premium Member
I was thinking perhaps Montipora danae or palawanensis. The growth plate is very solid at 3/8" thick tapering at the edges. Any help is appreciated as always :)

m1_zpsa1cf3a9c.png


q6_zpsb7128c09.png
 
I don't think it is M. palawanensis, because it would be covered completely with fused verrucae (ridges).
http://coral.aims.gov.au/speciesPages/species_metadata/0733/view#

M. danae is a good guess, because it will have the same verrucae and the will fused on the edge of the plates.
http://coral.aims.gov.au/speciesPages/species_metadata/0251/view#

Montipora undata could be a good possibility also. I see some of the ridges fusing into a pattern in the middle which is common of M. undata. You will know if it is when this piece starts to grow thick columns from those center ridges as it gets bigger.
http://coral.aims.gov.au/speciesPages/species_metadata/0278/view#
 
Thanks a lot Jason, there was another larger plating piece alongside this one from the same colony only it was uniformly flat and had very little ridging but rather single nodules covering its surface much like the ones to the lower left of that upward growth in the second pic, just the very edges on it had ridges. They were distinctly different in surface pattern looks.
 
M. danae and undata will both be able to get those nodes. M. undata might have more ridges, but that could all depend on the environment and parameters.
 
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