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An Australian scientist has discovered what could be the world's rarest coral in the remote North Pacific Ocean. The Pacific elkhorn coral was found during underwater surveys at Arno atoll, in the Marshall Islands, by coral researcher Dr Zoe Richards of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies (CoECRS).
The coral bears a close physical resemblance to the critically endangered and fast-vanishing elkhorn coral, or Acropora palmata, of the Atlantic Ocean.
But genetic analysis has shown it to be a different species.
"When I first saw it, I was absolutely stunned. The huge colonies - five metres across and nearly two metres high with branches like an elk's antlers - were like nothing I'd seen before in the Pacific Ocean," Dr Richards said in a statement.
"So far I have only found this new population of coral to occur along a small stretch of reef at a single atoll in the Marshalls group.
"It grows in relatively shallow water along the exposed reef front and, so far, fewer than 200 colonies are known from that small area."
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