The coral above is not a Montipora but a new species called Astreopora montiporina which is named after the common plating coral. Like A. cenderawasih and A. acroporina the new Astreopora montiporina was also discovered in Cenderawasih Bay, West Papua Indonesia and it also features very unusual growth morphology for this genus of usually massive and encrusting corals. Just like Astreopora acroporina has developed the same axial corallite that is the hallmark of Acropora, the resemblance of Astreopora montiporina to plating Montipora is more than just the plating growth form.
In addition to developing deliberate thin growing plates, A montiporina also has small, immersed corallites that are widely spaced out on the coenosteum just like is often seen in plating species of Montipora. Alos, whereas the branching Astreopora were found growing in relatively shallow water as is often the case with branching corals, the plating Astreopora montiporina was found living and growing much deeper at 40 to 85 feet deep (12 to 25 meters). As with the other new species of Asteropora, A. montiporina was only seen in dull colors of grey, brown and green yet it grew much larger colonies that were up to six feet in diameter.
Carden C. Wallace, Emre Turak & Lyndon DeVantier (2011): Novel characters in a conservative coral genus: three new species of Astreopora (Scleractinia: Acroporidae) from West Papua, Journal of Natural History, 45:31-32, 1905-1924
