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Blastomussa loyae was first described from the Red Sea in 1978 as a separate species from Blastomussa merleti*due to the separated walls and ‘irregular voids’ in the corallites of colonies. Blastomussa loyae*was first discovered growing in abundance alongside B. merleti*but although the species was first accepted as distinct, Stephen Cairns and Charles Veron subsequently classified B. loyae*as a Red Sea variant. New analysis of Red Sea Blastomussa loyae*skeletons by Karl Kleemann and Christian Baal of the University of Vienna is making the case for*B. loyae as a valid species again.*
The authors of the new paper published in the Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom*state that “the observed features in B. loyae*specimens 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 Sea Blastomussa*with living polyps that resemble the skeletons and descriptions of Blastomussa loyae. But what do we know about coral taxonomy, Matthew Tibbits probably has some Blastomussa loyae*skeletons sitting on his desk waiting analysis of their microstructure to tell us it’s actually related to Caulastrea.
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