The genus Manicina includes over 10 species, but Manicina areolata is the only species that survives today.
The Miocene and Pliocene (24 to 1.6 million years ago) were the heydey of Manicina when a range of species lived in shallow and deep-water habitats associate with small patch reefs in the Caribbean sea.
At about 1 million years ago, approximately one half of the species of reef-corals living in the Caribbean became extinct, and Manicina was especially strongly hit.