Anthozoa - Scleractinia - Merulinidae

This genus is established based on a combination of molecular and

morphological evidence from Huang et al. (2011)), Arrigoni, Stefani,

Pichon, Galli, and Benzoni (2012), and Huang, Benzoni, Fukami,

et al. (2014). The three members of this genus are: P. peresi (Faure &

Pichon, 1978) previously known as Goniastrea peresi; P. salebrosa

(Nemenzo, 1959) which is previously a member of genus Plesiastrea;

and P. serageldini (Veron, 2000) which is previously Montastraea

serageldini.

Parent taxon: Merulinidae according to H. M. Khalil et al. 2021

Sister taxa: Anisocoenia, Antiguastrea, Aquitanastraea, Astrea, Australogyra, Bikiniastrea, Boninastrea, Cladocora, Coelastrea, Cyphastrea, Dictuophyllia, Diplogyra, Dipsastraea, Echinopora, Edwardsastraea, Erythrastrea, Favites, Goniastrea, Hydnophora, Hydnophyllia, Leptoria, Liptodendron, Merulina, Monticulastraea, Mycedium, Orbicella, Oulophyllia, Paraclavarina, Paraleptoria, Paramontastraea, Parastrea, Pectinia, Phacellocoenia, Platygyra, Plavecia, Procladocora, Scapophyllia, Tarbellastraea, Trachyphyllia

Subtaxa: Paragoniastrea deformis

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Ecology: stationary intermediate-level epifaunal photosymbiotic-suspension feeder

Distribution: found only at Farasan Islands (Quaternary of Saudi Arabia)

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Specimen images are retrieved through the ePANDDA API.