Sinularia Clades are part of a new classification of soft corals that was published recently in the journal Invertebrate Biology. The study by McFadden et. al used molecular analysis to establish relationships between the 150 species of Sinularia that sorted out into five large groups of species called clades; a designation that is similar to bacteria and zooxanthellae. The many different soft corals were broken down into four large groups that may represent subgenera and one small group that was more distantly related. The small unique group included the flower leather corals, Sinularia dura and S. brassica, and they were shown to be different enough to likely merit their own genus in the future. Once these clades were established, the researchers re-examined the morphology of the different clades and several physical features were discovered that were previously overlooked. With the discovery of these new features, soft coral taxonomists may be able to reevaluate the physical relationships between all the species of Sinularia and perhaps reclassify them into new genera. Although soft corals may be notoriously difficult to identify, you should seek some comfort in knowing that even the experts are unsure of how to classify an organisms whose only solid parts are microscopic in nature.
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