An international research team, including scientists from James Cook University and the Queensland Museum, have scoured historical records to develop a new framework to help identify hard coral species and modernise coral science.
New JCU-led research published in Memoirs of the Queensland Museum, describes the development of a database of hard coral (extant hermatypic Scleractinia) information which reduces previous reliance on historical-gatekeepers, allowing for a rigorous new approach to coral identification that blends modern DNA technology with past observations.
"People the world over who work on coral reefs know that hard coral identification has been a problem," said JCU Professor Andrew Baird, co-author and supervisor of the research.
"Our database provides the basis for a new identification framework, at a time when accurate species-level knowledge has never been more critical.
"It encourages the use of multiple lines of evidence for coral identification. We hope the database will make what's previously been a specialist-led taxonomy, more accessible."
Molecular techniques, including DNA sequencing, have revolutionised how coral reef scientists identify species. The key innovation introduced by Prof Baird's team is the use of 'topotypes' - living examples of corals obtained from the same location they were first collected - as critical evidence used to identify and compare different coral species.
"Most historical species names are based on museum specimens which are bleached skeletons, lacking tissue. We need topotypes so they can be sequenced using modern genetic techniques," said JCU PhD candidate and first author, Augustine Crosbie.
"The lack of a consolidated record of coral names along with their original collection localities has been a bottleneck for the way we identify and name species.
"The significance of this work is that it tells us where to look for topotypes. We've found the locations for thousands of corals, right across the world's oceans."
However, finding where a species was first collected hundreds of years ago has often been challenging.
In an example of the team's detective work, Mr Crosbie reviewed ships logs and Captain's journals from early voyages of exploration and discovery, such as Captain James Cook's HMS Endeavour.
The research team's database collates 2338 nominal coral species described between 1758 and 2025, drawing on 383 taxonomic authorities, representing thousands of hours of work and contributing to the discovery of many new species.
Prof Baird explained that the use of topotypes is revolutionizing our understanding of coral biodiversity.
"Previous methods recognized about 160 species of staghorn corals - the branching corals common to most reefs in the Indo/Pacific - but our work suggests there are more than 500 species in this group," he said.
"Many of these new species have a limited range. For example, we found 12 species endemic to the Tasman Sea, three of which are only found in one small bay in the World Heritage Lord Howe Island Marine Park."
The team argue that such insights are vital to conservation efforts, especially as our reefs come under increasing pressure from warming oceans.
"Inaccurate identification can lead to silent extinctions, misleading experimental results, incorrect species distributions and flawed conservation decisions," said Prof Baird.
