Author: Andrew Baird Australia's Indian Ocean Territories (IOT) are made up of Cocos (Keeling) Island and Christmas Island, 1000s of km to west of Western Australia. Cocos (Keeling) Island is one of the most isolated atolls in the world. Cocos (Keeling) Island is famous, among other things, for being the first atoll visited by Charles … Continue reading The Indian Ocean Territories (IOT), Australia
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The Montipora spp. of the Blue Holes of Cocos Lagoon
Author: Andrew Baird The Blue Holes at the southern end of the Cocos Island Lagoon seem to be a particular rich habitat in terms of novel species with potentially three new Montipora species (Fig. 1). The Blue Holes are a highly unusual habitat and very prominent in the lagoon when viewed on Google Earth. The holes are mostly circular and range in size from 10s to 100s of metres in … Continue reading The Montipora spp. of the Blue Holes of Cocos Lagoon
New paper: “A tenuis relationship: traditional taxonomy obscures systematics and biogeography of the ‘Acropora tenuis’(Scleractinia: Acroporidae) species complex.”
Author: Andrew Baird The team at Project Phoenix has just published a paper in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society titled “A tenuis relationship: traditional taxonomy obscures systematics and biogeography of the ‘Acropora tenuis’ (Scleractinia: Acroporidae) species complex.” The paper is open access and available here. In the words of one of the reviewers, "This … Continue reading New paper: “A tenuis relationship: traditional taxonomy obscures systematics and biogeography of the ‘Acropora tenuis’(Scleractinia: Acroporidae) species complex.”
Interview article with ABC on recent Ningaloo Project
Check out this recent ABC article by Peter de Kruijff on Project Phoenix’s recent project, assessing the biodiversity of coral on the Ningaloo Reef. Thank you Peter and ABC for this opportunity!
Corals of Moorea
Author: Andrew Baird The coral fauna of French Polynesia is an important part of the taxonomic puzzle. Tahiti, in particular, has been visited by numerous expeditions including the US Exploring Expedition, the British led Challenger Expedition, and more recently the Tara Oceans Expedition. All these expeditions collected specimens that serve as type material for some … Continue reading Corals of Moorea
Acropora protoeiformis (Saville-Kent, 1897)
Author: Andrew Baird Nominal species: Madrepora protoeiformis Saville-Kent, 1897 One of the more distinctive corals on the reefs of Ningaloo (Western Australia) is Acropora protoeiformis originally described by Saville-Kent in 1897 in his classic travelogue “The Naturalist in Australia”, with his characteristic flourish: “To return to the subject of the Abrolhos corals, there was one form … notable for its … Continue reading Acropora protoeiformis (Saville-Kent, 1897)
Corals of the Exmouth Navy Pier
Author: Andrew Baird The Exmouth Navy Pier is often ranked as one of the 10 best shore dive sites, famous for its fish life and invertebrates such as nudibranchs, octopus, and harlequin shrimp. However, what it is not so well known for its corals, indeed, about 5 minutes into our dive I thought I had … Continue reading Corals of the Exmouth Navy Pier
Red Sea Acropora Workshop at Red Sea Research Center, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology
Most of the Australia based contingent of Project Phoenix (PP) has just returned from a workshop on the taxonomy of the Red Sea Acropora hosted by Professor Francesca Benzoni of the Red Sea Research Center at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia. The primary aim of the workshop was to revisit the status … Continue reading Red Sea Acropora Workshop at Red Sea Research Center, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology
The Coral Fauna of Aceh, Indonesia
Author: Andrew Baird Andrew Baird has recently returned from a research trip to Aceh, Indonesia. The aims of the trip were to present some of Project Phoenix’s results to colleagues at Syiah Kuala University (Universitas Syiah Kuala; USK) in Banda Aceh and to curate the coral specimens collected on previous trips to Aceh. The results … Continue reading The Coral Fauna of Aceh, Indonesia
Wonders of Ogasawara Islands
Author: Andrew Baird The Ogasawara Archipelago is a group of approximately 30 islands in the northern Pacific. The islands are part of the territory of Japan. The Ogasawara Islands are an important location in terms of taxonomy because they are the type location for nine nominal species. The islands were visited by the US Northern … Continue reading Wonders of Ogasawara Islands
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