Resources

These resources are available to those interested in hard coral taxonomy or field identification. The downloadable contents are for personal use only and Project Phoenix and members assume no responsibility for any special, direct, indirect, consequential, or incidental damages arising out of or in connection with the use of these contents. Please note that the external links are not provided or maintained by us and therefore we cannot guarantee the accuracy, timeliness, or completeness of the information on these external websites.

Protocols

A Protocol for Coral Collection & Curation
(PDF: 1.8 MB)
A protocol we use to collect and curate coral specimens for taxonomic research purposes

Additional files:  CoralFieldImages_Template.xlsxEXAMPLE_Moorea.xlsxCreative Commons Licence

Field Guides

Hard Corals of the Coral Sea
(PDF: 25 MB)
An illustrated overview of 147 species, 60 genera of hard corals observed in the Coral Sea

Creative Commons Licence

The Amun Ini House Reef Guide
(PDF: 1.2 MB)
An illustrated 1 page guide to commonly found hard coral species in Bohol, Philippines

Creative Commons Licence

Access to Type Material

The following institutions are some of the locations the physical type material has been deposited. Some have online catalogues of their collections that include type material and occasionally, this includes image of the type material available for downloading. At some institutions, curators will also organise images on request. Learn more about type material here.

CountryMuseumURL
AustraliaAustralian MuseumCollection search
AustraliaMuseum of Tropical Queensland, Queensland Museum NetworkCollection search
AustraliaWestern Australian MuseumCollection search
AustriaNaturhistorisches Museum WienMuseum website
FranceMuséum National d’Histoire NaturelleCollection search
GermanyHessisches Landesmuseum DarmstadtMuseum website
GermanyMuseum für Naturkunde BerlinMuseum website
GermanyStiftung Historische Museen HamburgMuseum website
ItalyMuseo Regionale Di Scienze NaturaliMuseum website

Collection via Google
PhilippinesInstitute of Environmental and Marine Sciences, Silliman UniversityInstitution website
PhilippinesDepartment of Biology, University of San CarlosInstitution website
PhilippinesUniversity of the Philippines Diliman Marine Science InstituteInstitution website
RussiaA.V. Zhirmunsky National Scientific Center of Marine Biology, Far East Branch, Russian Academy of SciencesInstitution website
South AfricaOceanographic Research Institute, South African Association for Marine Biological ResearchInstitution website
South AfricaSouth African Museum, Iziko Museums of South AfricaMuseum website
UKNatural History MuseumCollection search
USAThe Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel UniversityMuseum website
USANational Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian InstitutionCollection search
USAPeabody Essex MuseumMuseum website
USAYale Peabody Museum of Natural HistoryCollection search

Accessing Type Localities

An extensive and ongoing project has involved the identification of type locations for all nominal species through the examination of the original type material and associated texts. While this work is still in progress, we have been able to produce a map of the type locations for coral species originally described from the Great Barrier Reef shown below. We will continue to add species type locations in future.

To view the full list of species currently in this map, click “view larger map” in the top right corner.

Systematics

Corals old-to-new Conversion List
(Excel: 70 KB)
The names of many coral species have changed most often because they have been moved from one genera/families to another. All of these changes in the order Scleractinia are recorded in meticulous detail by Prof. Bert Hoeksema and Dr. Stephen Cairns at World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS), however, this spreadsheet offers a quick way to convert the old species names to the new. If you need to be sure of the current new names, please double check at WoRMS.

Nemenzo Virtual Museum
by coenomap.org

An online repository of Francisco Nemenzo’s coral taxonomic work in the Philippines

Corallosphere
by corallosphere.org

Compilation of taxonomic information on extant and extinct scleractinian corals

Seminars

Upcoming seminars:

Identification Guides by External Organisations

Coral Finder 2021
by Russell Kelley, BYOGUIDES