Biogeographic distribution

The Myrionema genus was originally discovered in 1893, but was first studied in 1906 by Congdon from samples obtained from Belize, near the Gulf of Mexico (Ronchi 2012). Further studies were conducted from the same location in 1981 by Spracklin.

Based on its prevalence in aquariums around the world and the few papers documenting its presence, the global distribution of Myrionema can be described as ranging from the tropical regions of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans.

The colonies studied in this investigation were obtained from Heron Island and have survived in the University of Queensland aquarium for many years. 


Figure 13. A map of Myrionema's biogeographic distribution, ranging from the North Atlantic to the Indo-Pacific. Courtesy of Google Maps.