Favites
# Favites

Favites is a genus of stony corals in the family Merulinidae. Members of this genus are native to the Indo-Pacific region and their ranges extend from the Red Sea through the Indian Ocean and Western Pacific Ocean as far as Japan, the Line Islands and the Tuamotu Islands.

## Characteristics

Colonies can be encrusting but are usually massive and dome-shaped. The corallites are mostly cerioid (sharing a common wall), but some are plocoid (with an individual wall) and the palliform lobes are indistinct, which distinguishes these corals from the otherwise similar Goniastrea.

## Species

The following species are currently recognized by the World Register of Marine Species :

* Favites abdita (Ellis & Solander, 1786)
* Favites acuticollis (Ortmann, 1889)
* Favites chinensis (Verrill, 1866)
* Favites colemani (Veron, 2000)
* Favites complanata (Ehrenberg, 1834)
* Favites favosa (Ellis & Solander, 1786)
* Favites flexuosa (Dana, 1846)
* Favites halicora (Ehrenberg, 1834)
* Favites magnistellata (Chevalier, 1971)
* Favites melicerum (Ehrenberg, 1834)
* Favites micropentagonus Veron, 2000
* Favites monticularis Mondal, Raghunathan & Venkataraman, 2013
* Favites paraflexuosus Veron, 2000
* Favites pentagona (Esper, 1795)
* Favites rotundata Veron, Pichon & Wijsman-Best, 1977
* Favites solidocolumellae Latypov, 2006
* Favites spinosa (Klunzinger, 1879)
* Favites stylifera Yabe & Sugiyama, 1937
* Favites valenciennesi (Milne Edwards & Haime, 1849)
* Favites vasta (Klunzinger, 1879)

## Fossil record

Fossils of Favites are found in marine strata from the Jurassic to the Quaternary (age range: from 161.2 to 0.0 million years ago.). Fossils are known from many localities in Europe, Indonesia, Philippines, Africa, North America, South America, Pakistan, Japan and India.

