06/27/2026
"From their skeleton, these corals can look very similar, which is why their diversity remained hidden for so long,” said Laura Macrina. “Genomic tools now allow us to look in much more detail into their evolutionary history and understand how coral species are connected – or separated – across different regions.”
Scientists have discovered that one of the ocean’s most recognizable corals, the iconic “organ pipe coral” — long believed to be a single widespread species — includes at least 15 genetically distinct lineages.
The discovery is particularly significant for the Red Sea, where researchers identified two coral lineages that appear unique to the region, adding to growing evidence that this sea is one of the planet’s great cradles of marine biodiversity.
All of the corals collected and analyzed for this study are now stored in natural history museums, where scientists around the world will have access to them for future studies.
“Museum collections are libraries of life that hold a huge number of unread books,” wrote study co-author Gustav Paulay, curator of invertebrate zoology here at the Florida Museum. “Unfortunately, there is limited support for studying specimens, thus much undiscovered diversity lurks in collections.”
🪸 Story: https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/hidden-in-plain-sight-dna-reveals-15-overlooked-coral-lineages-in-the-indo-pacific/
Study: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1055790326000928
