[Coral-List] Proliferation of Acropora prolifera

[Capman, William]

I know nothing about the fertility or lack thereof of Acropora prolifera,
but for organisms in general, interspecific hybrids are not necessarily
sterile.  Some hybrids are sterile of course, but others are perfectly
fertile, and there is everything inbetween (including cases where hybrids
can reproduce with one parent species but not the other, cases where the
hybrids can interbreed with other hybrids like themselves but not with
either parent species, cases where hybrid fertility is reduced but not
eliminated completely, etc, etc, etc, etc).  There are many different
scenarios in different species, and in some groups of organisms (e.g.
plants as a prime example) interspecific hybridization events can play
important roles in the evolution of new species.


On Tue, Sep 3, 2013 at 8:12 AM, Dennis Hubbard
<dennis.hubbard at oberlin.edu>wrote:

> At the risk of displaying my ignorance as a geologist, am I correct that A.
> prolifera cannot reproduce sexually (nature's version of an army mule)? I'd
> be interested in an informed discussion of the reproductive pathways that
> might produce this result. If, in fact, there must be other acroporids
> involved, then there must be enough of them to increase the numbers of this
> hybrid species. In this scenario, is the fact that hybridization seems to
> be trumping within-species sexual reproduction significant and, if so, what
> might it be telling us. Or, is it it just fragmentation gone wild.
>
> Inquiring minds want to know,
>
> Dennis
>
>
> On Mon, Sep 2, 2013 at 8:24 AM, vassil zlatarski <vzlatarski at yahoo.com
> >wrote:
>
> > Dear colleagues,
> >
> > It is surprising that in this period of degradation of the coral reefs
> the
> > Caribbean hybrid Acropora prolifera is proliferating during last four
> > decades. This counter-intuitive trend is evident due to the facts that
> the
> > hybrid was found lately in more places, in larger quantity of colonies
> and
> > in various growth forms.I would greatly appreciate anyinformation and
> > advise on this matter.
> >
> > Also, any data aboutfossilA. prolifera?
> >
> > Thanks in advance!
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> > Vassil
> >
> > Vassil Zlatarski
> > D.Sc. (Biology), Ph.D. (Geology)
> >
> > 131 Fales Rd., Bristol, RI 02809, USA;  tel.:
> >  +1-401-254-5121
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>
>
>
> --
> Dennis Hubbard
> Chair, Dept of Geology-Oberlin College Oberlin OH 44074
> (440) 775-8346
>
> * "When you get on the wrong train.... every stop is the wrong stop"*
>  Benjamin Stein: "*Ludes, A Ballad of the Drug and the Dream*"
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