Grooved Brain Coral

The grooved brain coral (Diploria labyrinthiformis) is a massive, dome-shaped reef coral of the Caribbean and Bermuda, whose surface is covered with winding valleys resembling a brain.

🧬 Field Guide Specimen: Open Grooved Brain Coral in the CRV Science Field Guide to log the specimen, see its place among the Cnidaria+Ctenophora lineages in the Cladogram Explorer, and test your recall in the Red List conservation game.

Rows of polyps share long, meandering valleys separated by ridges, a pattern called meandroid. The colony grows slowly, a few millimeters a year, and large heads may be centuries old. Their tissue contains symbiotic algae that provide much of the energy.

Since 2014 a fast-spreading disease has killed corals across Florida and the Caribbean, hitting brain corals especially hard. Infected colonies lose tissue in a matter of days. The cause is still being investigated and may involve bacteria. See Coral bleaching.

Like tree rings, the growth bands of massive corals record past sea temperatures and chemistry, which helps reconstruct ocean climate over centuries. See Elkhorn Coral.

• Elkhorn Coral — a branching Caribbean coral
• Coral bleaching — heat stress