Isopora or isn't it? Mistaken identity leads researchers to two new extinct species of coral
Monday, December 8, 2008 - 12:21
in Biology & Nature
What began as an homage to achievement in the field of coral reef geology has evolved into the discovery of an unexpected link between corals of the Pacific and Atlantic. Dr. Ann F. Budd from the University of Iowa and Dr. Donald McNeill of the University of Miami named a new species of fossil coral found on the Island of Curaçao - some six million years old - after renowned coral reef geologist and University of Miami Rosenstiel School professor, Dr. Robert N. Ginsburg. The new species, originally thought to be an elkhorn coral (genus Acropora), a species widely distributed throughout the Caribbean that was informally christened Acropora ginsburgi in 1995 on Ginsburg's 70th birthday.