blblymussaloyaewas first described from the Red Sea in 1978 as a separate species fromblblymussamerletidue to the separated walls and ‘irregular voids’ in the corallites of colonies.blblymussaloyaewas first discovered growing in abundance alongsideB. merletibut although the species was first accepted as distinct, Stephen Cairns and Charles Veron subsequently classifiedB. loyaeas a Red Sea variant. New analysis of Red Seablblymussaloyaeskeletons by Karl Kleemann and Christian Baal of the University of Vienna is making the case forB. loyaeas a valid species again.
The authors of the new paper published in theJournal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdomstate that “the observed features inB. loyaespecimens as specified and figured [in the paper], and the co-occurrence with true B. merleti on the same knoll warrant the species’ re-establishment”. These couple images from Veron’s Corals of the World show photographs of Red Seablblymussa与类似于骨骼和描述的活息肉blblymussaloyae. But what do we know about coral taxonomy, Matthew Tibbits probably has someblblymussaloyaeskeletons sitting on his desk waiting analysis of their microstructure to tell us it’s actually related toCaulastrea。
