Mr. Julian Sprung was rather coy about the topic of his MACNA-opening presentation but the mystery seems to have built a fair amount of buzz. As we type, Julian is speaking on how the web of life is interconnected and that there are hundreds if not thousands of coral and fish hybrids and coral spawning in general is just one big orgy of coral gametes. One prime example is the slight differences between Scolymia, Acanthophyllia and Indophyllia. This big mixing of Nature’s genes means that that certain “species” of coral are actually a continuum of specimens showing a wide range of features a-la reticulate evolution. This is a very exciting new area of coral study and we look forward to hearing more about the phenomenon from Mr. Sprung’s article in progress on the topic of coral and fish hybridization.
