Grammatonotus xanthostigma is a new species of deepwater basslet that was recently described in 2017 after their discovery by technical divers Drs. Brian Greene and Rich Pyle in 2015. Despite its obje…
New ocean zone added to coral “Twilight Zone”
Mesophotic, meet your new neighbor rariphotic. The deep sea Twilight Zone of coral reefs and some insanely beautiful fish has another zone names the rariphotic zone thanks to the Smithsonian Institute…
Sinularia mesophotica, A New Species of Photosyntetic Soft Coral From The Deep
Sinularia mesophotica is a new species of soft coral that has just been described from the deep waters of the Red Sea. This coral is special for a number reasons, not the least of which is how de…
Genicanthus spinus: First Video of this Rare Angelfish from the Cook Islands
Genicanthus spinus is a species of angelfish so rare that it’s literally one of the few Pomacanthids that we’d never written about, until today. We’ve covered so many rare …
A new way to photosynthesize discovered in mesophotic coral, Stylophora pistillata
A new study published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science found that photosynthetic algae in corals which inhabit mesophotic reefs have a never-before seen adaptation to life in the twilig…
Prognathodes basabei, or orange margin butterfly, now officially described
Although known to exist for over 20 years and even referenced quite a few times here at Reef Builders, a new species of deep-water butterflyfish from the mesophotic reefs of the Papahanaumokuakea Mari…
Habitat Persistence Hypothesis is Rich Pyle’s exciting theory about deep reef fish
Dr. Rich Pyle is one of the undisputed pioneers of deep reef fish species habitats, and biology. Over the last thirty years, Pyle has been exploring deep mesophotic reefs and discovering new species o…
Brian Greene, Richard Pyle and Sonia Rowley teases with a surfeit of undescribed species from Pohnpei
To the uninitiated, the mesophotic coral reefs would seem like an unlikely place to find vibrant fish life. Antonymous to the ebullient habitat of shallow water coral gardens, the mesophotic zone is a…
The deep sea is on display in Curacao
To most people the Mesophotic Zone is an entirely unknown part of the ocean that very few study and even fewer have physically visited. Yet these areas are more diverse than anticipated and contain a …
Psammocora eldredgei sets new record for mesophotic photosynthesis
Psammocora eldredgei is a new species of stony coral that is remarkable not for its size or appearance, but for how deep this Scleratinian was collected from. Most new species of stony corals are real…