Three New Coral Species Discovered in Hong Kong Waters at HKBU

Hong Kong Baptist University announced today (7th) that three new species of stony corals have been discovered in Hong Kong waters, and the three species have been named "Tree-type tube star coral", "Purple-flesh tube star coral" and "Green wall tube" Star Coral".

HKBU said the three species had not been found anywhere else in the world.

The samples were collected by the HKBU research team in the eastern waters of Hong Kong around Songgang and Waglan Island during an investigation into coral feeding by sea slugs.

Three new species of coral were discovered this time, all of which belong to the genus "Tongxing coral", and the number of known species of this species has increased from seven to 10.

Professor Qiu Jianwen of the Department of Biology at HKBU said that the three newly discovered corals are named according to their types and colors, and the new species are all non-reef-building corals without symbiotic algae that can generate energy through photosynthesis, and inhabit between 10 and 30 The bottom of the meter deeper, will use tentacles to prey on zooplankton in the sea.

One of the newly discovered species is the tree-shaped tube star coral (Tubastraea dendroida), which Qiu says is typically bright orange like most sun corals.

However, its shape is different from that of most corals of the same genus, which grow in clusters. This new species has a tree-like structure. The main trunk of the coral group extends from the bottom to the tip, so the team named it "dendroida" (Latin for tree).

Another newly discovered species is the purple flesh tube star coral (Tubastraea violacea), its coral body is covered by a thin layer of lavender tissue, the body wall tissue and skeleton of its coral polyps are purple, so it is named "purple flesh" Tube Star Coral.

Qiu explained that the species has yellow tentacles and the coral body has thick walls.

The research team compared DNA sequences in public databases and found that the new species of coral may have other colors, such as a yellow variant that may exist in New Caledonia in the South Pacific.

The known habitat of the green-walled star coral is currently only in Hong Kong

The last newly discovered species is the green-walled tube star coral (Tubastraea chloromura).

The species has an olive-green fine skeletal wall and a ring of yellow tentacles around the mouth, so it was named "chloromura", where "chloro" and "murus" mean Latin for "green" and "wall" respectively. ".

Qiu Jianwen explained that according to the coral gene sequence records in the public database, it is estimated that the "tree-shaped tube star coral" and "purple flesh tube star coral" may be distributed in Japan and the western Pacific Ocean.

However, the known habitat of "Green Wall Tube Star Coral" is currently only in Hong Kong waters.

Attention for water sports｜The damaged ring of coral in Kiu Tsui, Sai Kung means that diving is easy to touch by mistake or it can reach 200,000 times a year. The coral survey of the AFCD: the coverage rate of the north of Kiu Tsui Chau exceeds 80%. Slight coral bleaching is recorded in individual locations. First new stony coral species in 20 years