There have been a lot of new species descriptions in the last handful of weeks, and there are lots that can be said about each of them. We’ve covered them all individually but we wanted to bring your attention to what makes each of them special. Each of these new species of fish and corals pay their own part to shed a little light on the fascinating world of reefs and the corals and fish that live on them.
Earlier this month we had a trio of attractive new nano gobies described from the heart of the Coral Triangle. These new gobies are doing nothing but cementing Gobiidae as one of the most speciated families of fish in the whole world.
Pseudocoris occidentalis and P. hemichrysos are two new species of wrasses from the Indian Ocean that greatly added to the species count of the rarely kept Pseudocoris genus of wrasses, and they are part of a review of the entire genus.
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The Curasub Goby, Coryphopterus curasub was named after the deep sea submersible that was used to collect the first specimens at incredible depths in Curacao.
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Psammocora eldredgei is a fascinating new species of stony coral that was not only collected from incredible depth, but also was found to harbor photosynthetic zooxanthellas well beyond the depth where we understand photosynthesis can occur.
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The newly described Nanipora kamurai is practically unlike any other species of Octocoral, and is now believed to be one of the closest living relatives of the widespread blue ridge coral, and one of the few “soft corals” to build a skeleton.
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The newly described Leiopathes annosa is quite remarkable for being one of the oldest living animals in the world, nuff said.
