Heliopora hiberniana is a New Species of ‘White’ Blue Ridge Coral

Heliopora hiberniana is the first new species of blue ridge coral to be described in over two hundred and fifty years! Originally described by Palais in 1766, Heliopora coerulea, also known as Blue Ridge coral is a super common, widespread and distinctive coral.

Despite its solid, calcareous branching shape the blue ridge coral is not in fact a true Scleractinia ‘stony coral’ but is part of an ancient lineage of soft coral which is unique in building a solid internal skeleton. Further making Heliopora unmistakable is the blue skeleton which give blue ridge corals its name, but now we’ve got brand new species that sometimes has a white skeleton.

The thin branches and white skeleton of the newly recognized Heliopora hiberniana are clearly visible.

It’s been known for quite some time that there is a great variability in the growth forms and spawning habits of Heliopora across the Indo-Pacific Ocean. While some molecular analysis has shown a degree of phylogenetic separation between some of these forms, the recent paper by Richards et. al. is the first to describe the new species of Heliopora hiberniana based on both morphology and DNA.

A comparison of the blue skeleton of Heliopora coerulea on the left, and the white skeleton of H. hiberniana on the right.

Discovered on Hibernia Reef in northwest Australia, one ‘smoking gun’ characteristic of Heliopora hibeniana is that many of the samples collected show a white skeleton instead of the tell-tale blue, although some colonies displayed an intermediate blueish white skeleton. Furthermore H. hiberniana also has a more open slender growth form and is clearly distinctive from the more common wide branched Heliopora coerulea when they are seen growing on the same reef.

This is is a super exciting new development to learn that there are in fact other species of living blue ridge coral, as several extinct species had been described from fossil material. While Heliopora hiberniana is the first new living blue ridge coral to be described in 250 years, since it was only recognized growing on a handful of reefs in northwest australia we are holding out hope that many others of this unique family of solid soft corals will be revealed from other locales in the future. [Nature]

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Jake Adams

Jake Adams has been an avid marine aquarist since the mid 90s and has worked in the retail side of the marine aquarium trade for more than ten years. He has a bachelor’s degree in Marine Science and has been the managing editor of ReefBuilders.com since 2008. Jake is interested in every facet of the marine aquarium hobby from the concepts to the technology, rare fish to exotic corals, and his interests are well documented through a very prolific career of speaking to reef clubs and marine aquarium events, and writing articles for aquarium publications across the globe. His primary interest is in corals which Jake pursues in the aquarium hobby as well as diving the coral reefs of the world.