Congratulation to Hanaka Mera and colleagues for a paper just published in Coral Reefs that should be of interest to everyone working on coral spawning on the Great Barrier Reef. The paper is published with open access and can be viewed here. The paper explored coral spawning patterns using over 30 years of direct coral … Continue reading New Paper: “Patterns of coral spawning in the Palm Islands, Great Barrier Reef”
Author: Admin
New paper: “The tables have turned: taxonomy, systematics and biogeography of the Acropora hyacinthus (Scleractinia: Acroporidae) complex”
In 2020 when Project Phoenix launched this website, we promised a revolution and thanks to some excellent work led by Dr Sage Rassmussen, we have just delivered with a taxonomic revision of the Acropora hyacinthus species complex (Rassmussen et al. 2025). To quote the singer-songwriter Tracy Chapman and to paraphrase the title of the paper published in … Continue reading New paper: “The tables have turned: taxonomy, systematics and biogeography of the Acropora hyacinthus (Scleractinia: Acroporidae) complex”
Leptoseris amitoriensis Veron, 1990
Author: Andrew Baird Nominal species: Leptoseris amitoriensis Veron, 1990 This note outlines some excellent detective work conducted by a group of Japanese coral scientists (Fujii et al. 2018) to establish that fragments of the holotype of Leptoseris amitoriensis Veron 1990, which was thought to be lost, do indeed exist. In addition, like many of these notes, there is … Continue reading Leptoseris amitoriensis Veron, 1990
Moreton Bay, December 2024
Author: Andrew Baird Andrew from James Cook University, Tom, Stefano and Merrick from Queensland Museum and Amanda from Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service visited the Moreton Bay Research Station on North Stradbroke Island in December 2024 (Fig. 1). The aim was to collect and curate all the hard coral species in the Moreton Bay region … Continue reading Moreton Bay, December 2024
New paper: “Identity of Montipora angulata (Lamarck, 1816) (Scleractinia, Acroporidae)”
In a new open access paper in Galaxea, Journal of Coral Reef Studies, Nomura et al. (2024) redescribe Montipora angulata (Lamarck, 1816) through reference to the type material and field specimens from Japan, and revisit the taxonomic status of morphologically similar species through comparison of the type material. Due to the poor taxonomic resolution of current molecular markers in … Continue reading New paper: “Identity of Montipora angulata (Lamarck, 1816) (Scleractinia, Acroporidae)”
Shedding light on the dark diversity of corals
A new article is available at the Lizard Island Reef Research Foundation website summarising what we found in our recent project: https://lirrf.org/shedding-light-on-the-dark-diversity-of-corals/ Related article: https://coralprojectphoenix.org/2024/06/11/taxonomy-of-the-reef-building-corals-of-lizard-island/
Taiwan – July 2024
Author: Andrew Baird Andrew Baird has recently returned from Taiwan as a guest of the Delta Electronics Foundation (Delta), the Taiwanese Coral Reef Society and the National Museum of Marine Science and Technology (NMMST). Delta fund the reef research project through NMMST with Dr Chao-Yang Kuo (CY) as the Principal Investigator. The aims of the … Continue reading Taiwan – July 2024
Taxonomy of the reef-building corals of Lizard Island
Project Phoenix has just submitted a final report for funding received from the Lizard Island Reef Research Foundation. Preliminary results of the research into the taxonomy of the reef-building corals of Lizard Island indicate that species richness in many groups of stony coral is 4-5 times higher than previously recognised, largely due to an extraordinary … Continue reading Taxonomy of the reef-building corals of Lizard Island
Ogasawara wrap 2023
Author: Andrew Baird Prof Andrew Baird, of James Cook University, Australia, a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) alumni, joined Dr James Reimer and members of the Molecular Invertebrate Systematics and Ecology (MISE) Laboratory of the University of the Ryukyus, Japan and Drs Michael Stat and Megan Huggett of the University of Newcastle, … Continue reading Ogasawara wrap 2023
The Crystal Pool on Norfolk Island, January 2024
Author: Andrew Baird If you only have one chance to go snorkel on Norfolk Island, the place to go is the Crystal Pool. This series of rock pools are almost completely isolated from the Ocean at low tide. The rock pools measure approximately 50 m in length, 3-4 m in width and 1-2 m in … Continue reading The Crystal Pool on Norfolk Island, January 2024
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