The octocoral genus Tubipora, commonly known as organ pipe coral, is widespread in shallow-water coral reefs throughout the Indo-Pacific. Ten nominal species have been described, however, most recent author recognise only one T. musica.

Macrina and colleagues revisit the species richness of the genus using 136 colonies collected across six Indo-Pacific marine provinces. Morphological and phylogenomic analyses recovered at least 15 species-level lineages. All 15 were endemic to the region in which they were sampled. For example, the six lineages that occur on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), only occur on the GBR, at least in this data set (Figure 1). The GBR is also the centre of diversity for the group although with a similar proviso. By way of comparison, the Red Sea and Fiji have only 2 lineages.

The story is typical of most modern integrated phylogenomic work on the Anthozoa demonstrating that:

• 1. most of the synonymies that predate the use of molecular approaches are incorrect, necessitating an examination of all nominal species, not just those considered valid
• 2. most putatively widespread species are complexes of species with much smaller often non-overlapping range sizes
• 3. the species richness of most anthozoan taxa is far greater than traditional taxonomy suggests
• 4. there are hundreds of new species to be discovered and described

Broader sampling across the Indo-Pacific region will almost certainly discover many more independently evolving lineages in this commonly overlooked genus.

The paper is open access and can be viewed here.

Macrina L, Terraneo TI, McFadden CS, Sabino A, Oury N, Barreca F, Vicario S, Samimi-Namin K, Knop D, Rodrigue M, Pieribone V, Baird AH, Berumen ML, Reimer JD, Paulay G, Benzoni F (2026) Beyond Tubipora musica: Phylogenomics unveils the overlooked diversity and endemism of the hermatypic octocoral genus Tubipora. Mol Phylogen Evol 221:108622