325 Neogene paleontology in the northern Dominican Republic: 3. The family Poritidae (Anthozoa: Scleractinia)

Neogene paleontology in the northern Dominican Republic: 3. The family Poritidae (Anthozoa: Scleractinia) - BAP #325 Various multivariate statistical procedures are used to distinguish species in the reef-coral family Poritidae through a continuous Neogene sequence (five myr time interval) in the Cibao Valley of the northern Dominican Republic. Some older (by approximately 10 myr) material from the same region is also included in the analyses. The material consists of approximately 450 colonies (120 of which are measured) from 92 localities in four river sections. The colonies are first sorted into three genera, and approximately 30 characters measured on five calices per colony. The data are analyzed using cluster and canonical discriminant analyses to group the colonies into clusters representing species. Five species are so defined into Porites and three in Goniopora. These groupings are then used statistically to reclassify type specimens for 22 of the 25 described species of Neo