Recent work by Wagner and Opresko clears up the taxonomy for this coral genus, coming firmly down that these methuselah corals from Hawaii are a completely news species. Despite the misleading statements of some news pieces, the specimens were not recently collected nor recently discovered to be old.   Work back in 2009 by Rourke et al. confirmed these record holding lifespans using radiocarbon dating. The specimens were collected from 1971-2009 and have resided in the collections of scientists and museums. This does not detract from the recently published paper by Wagner and Opresko who clear up confusion because these specimens were previously misidentified or unidentified.

Because of this nobody also realized these corals are cooler than David Caruso.

Like other hexacorals, black corals have proteinaceous skeletons covered in tiny spines, polyps wit size non-retractable and non-branching tentacles, and being exclusively colonial. Another distinctive aspect is hexacorals possess six primary mesenteries, internal body walls that radially divide the polyps into compartments. Think of the dishes in Trivia Pursuit that hold the game wedges or rotelle pasta.Most black corals have six primary mesenteries and either no or four secondary mesenteries. But the species in the black coral family Leiopathidae are biologically blinged out with six primary and six secondary mesenteries. Just ignore the fact that the skeletal spines are poorly developed in the black corals. David Caruso? One mesentery and one spine.

The new species is christened Leiopathes annosa (annosa is Latin for long lived). I would have went with Leiopathes meliorcaruso. The defining characteristic compared to other Leipathes species is that the spines, diminutive though they are, are spherical and multi-lobed (see a in the photo above).  Multi-lobed. Yeahhhhh! The closest species in looks to L. annosa is L. bullosa. The spines are not multi-lobed in L. bullosa. L. annosa also has thicker and longer branches along with more and bigger polyps. Yeahhhhh!

So Leiopathes annosa is older and most definitely more awesome than a lot of other corals. And much better than David Caruso.

The post The Deep-Sea Coral That Is Older and More Awesome Than David Caruso first appeared on Deep Sea News.

Just near 6 million liters of oil spilled out of Macondo well in 2010, about 6 supertankers worth of oil. The ramifications of the oil spill are still being documented and far reaching but included aberrant protein expression in fish gills, altered bacterial communities, and a whole suite nastiness in dolphins. At three different sites deep-sea corals appear to be impacted (study 1, study 2). Corals were covered with brown flocculent material and showed telltale signs of stress including excess mucus, enlargement of the skeletal elements (sclerites), and tissue loss. But new work suggests that it was not the oil that leads to unhealthy and dying corals rather dispersant.

Nearly 7 million liters of oil dispersants were applied during the cleanup efforts, 3 million of these in the deep sea directly near the wellhead. Yet little is known how oil and the dispersant, and the mixture of the two, impacts deep-sea corals. New work by Danielle DeLeo and colleagues sets out to address this in three different coral species. The group collected individual corals from the deep Gulf of Mexico using remote operated vehicles. On board corals were exposed to crude oil (collected from Macondo during the spill, dispersant (Corexit 9500A), a mixture of the two, and a seawater control.

All three deep-sea coral species examined showed more severe declines in health in response to dispersant alone and the oil-dispersant mixtures than the oil-only treatments. To restate, the dispersant was more toxic than the oil. Dispersants are known to disrupt the normal function of cell and organelle membranes. This means molecules are not transported normally across the membranes and cells cannot osmoregulate. Dispersant mixed with oil increases polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons that organisms break down into toxic forms. Basically, the dispersant, as designed, increased the proportion of crude oil compounds that were biologically available.

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The post Given the choice, corals would prefer oil to dispersant first appeared on Deep Sea News.

As the as the largest species of parrotfish, a single individual of Bolbometopon muricatum can ingest over 5 tons of reef per year. That freaky looking bump is also for head butting rival males.  What’s not love. And now with the help of the Digital Underground.

All right!
Stop whatcha doin’
’cause I’m about to ruin
the image of a fish that ya used to.
I look funny,
but yo I’m eatin’ corals, see
so yo reef I hope you’re ready for me.
Now gather round
I’m the new fish in town
and my foreheads bumped up all big and round

I’m eatin’ up all the corals ya got above the shelf
so just let me introduce myself
My name is Humpty, pronounced with a Umpty.
Yo ladies, oh how I like to hump thee.
And all the male rivals nearby allow me to bump thee.
I’m swimmin’ big, y’all,
and just like Humpty Dumpty
you’re gonna fall when my big head bumps thee.
I like to spawn,
I like my reefs comfy,
I’m spunky. I like my corals all lumpy.
Completely covered in scales, straight gangsta mack
but sometimes I get ridiculous
I’ll eat up the corals because I think their delicious

hey yo fish girl, c’mere-you wanna aggregate?
Yeah, my heads fat.
Look at me, I’m finny
It never stopped me from gettin’ busy
I’m a freak
I like the girls with head bumps
I once got busy near a coral reef stump
I’m crazy.
Allow me to amaze thee.
They say I’m ugly but it just don’t faze me.
I’m still attractin’ all these internet rants
and I even got my own dance

The Humphead Dance is your chance to do the hump
Do the Humpty Hump, come on and do the Humpty Hump
Do the Humpty Hump, just watch this fish do the Humpty Hump
Do ya know what this fish doin’, doin’ the Humpty Hump
Do the Humpty Hump, do the Humpty Hump

The post These Are Few of My Favorite Species: Humphead Parrotfish first appeared on Deep Sea News.

First, the duo found that one genus, Wanella, typically thought of as a Pyrgomatidae, should pack it up and go home because it’s not closely related to the rest of the group.  Second, the Pyrgomatidae is typically divided into three distinct groups.  Indeed, the team did retrieve three distinct groups. But they were completely different groups.   The authors are modest when they state there is “a need to revise the classification of the Pyrgomatidae.”

Pyrgomatidae are unique among barnacles.  Instead of having a flat base like other barnacles the base is rounded off and cup shaped.  The many plates that make up typical barnacle sides are often fused together.  Those characteristic barnacle trap doors are much smaller or sometimes even absent in Pyrgomatidae.  Even within the group, calcification can be greatly reduced, i.e. these barnacles can be a little soft.  The evolutionary patterns of these specific features are complicated within Pyrgomatidae.  The fusion of the plates, fusion of the trap doors, and reduced calcification all evolved multiple times.  And sometimes evolved back.  This is of course problematic because the prior classification scheme for the group was based on these traits.

One trait did appear to be conserved within just two related groups.  Larvae settle on the surface of the host coral and once this occurs growth is rapid.  The adult barnacle has to continue to grow vertically or else the coral will overgrow it.  Coral growth around the barnacle may also be limited by the release of chemical agent.  Coral entombment is also prevented by barnacle “teeth” scraping away at the edges of the coral that threaten overgrow the crustacean. This “teeth” appear to have evolved just once among Pyrgomatidae.

The strangest among barnacles are the Hoekiines that evolved into coral parasites.  Others members of Pyrgomatidae are filter feeders using cirri (hairlike filaments).  Hoekiines have greatly reduced cirri that are completely non-functional.  What Hoekiines possess instead are very enlarge biting mouthparts that allow them to feed on coral flesh.  One would think that, because of these bizarre and unique features, Hoekiines would have evolutionarily branched out very early on.  Yet, quite the opposite has happened.  Hoekiines evolved very rapidly possible to quickly exploit the parasitic lifestyle.

Malay, M., & Michonneau, F. (2014). Phylogenetics and morphological evolution of coral-dwelling barnacles (Balanomorpha: Pyrgomatidae) Biological Journal of the Linnean Society DOI: 10.1111/bij.12315

The post A Narrative of Coral-Dwelling Barnacles With the Aid of Internet Memes first appeared on Deep Sea News.

Well, let’s start with an analogy. Suppose you pick an arbitrary time of day, choose a random subway station in any city, stand at the exit, and pull aside the first 100 people that emerge. You force them to run a marathon—right there, right then. There is no other option. You now have full control over those 100 lives. They’d better start running…or else. (Hey I didn’t say this was going to be an ethical analogy, did I?)

26.2 miles is a grueling distance, even for the most highly trained athlete. Nevermind what that distance might mean for the rotund businessman who faints at the mere sight of a treadmill (hostage #43 in your pack).

Climate change will be equally grueling for corals – human impacts will likely force reef-guiding species to endure oceanic conditions that they’ve never before faced during the history of their time on earth. As the global thermostat creeps ever higher, coral reefs will start singing that Nelly song.

But like our random pack of runners, not all corals start off on equal footing. Thermal stress (a.k.a. its gettin hot in herre) is a serious concern for reefs, since heightened temperatures are one of the main drivers of coral bleaching events. But some corals naturally live in hotter, more variable pools of water, and a new study suggests that these populations may be specifically adapted, at the genomic level, to deal with otherwise challenging temperatures (Barshis et al. 2013).

In other words, out of our 100 hostages, some people might say “&*%# YEAH!” and start running without a second thought (hey, you never know who’s been training for what race). Likewise, some corals have trained their genes to not FREAK OUT when the ambient water temperature is atypically high.

Barshis et al. (2013) looked at a similar situation in two different populations of Acropora hyacinthus, a common reef-building coral inhabiting the waters around Ofu Island, American Samoa:

The backreef environment in Ofu is composed of distinct pools that experience variable levels of temperature, pH, and oxygen driven by tidal fluctuations (26, 38). The most variable of these pools reach ≥34 °C during summer low tides and exhibits daily thermal fluctuations up to 6 °C (26, 38). Corals in the more variable pools show higher stress protein biomarker levels (39), more heattolerant Symbiodinium genotypes (27), faster growth rates (38, 40), and enhanced thermal tolerance (28). [Barshis et al. 2013]

The researchers picked corals from highly variable (HV) and moderately variable (MV, a.k.a less variable) areas of the reef, brought the corals back to the lab, and then in controlled tanks barraged them with some pretty harsh environmental conditions. Barshis et al. (2013) then looked at what genes were expressed in the HV versus MV coral groups:

Under simulated bleaching stress, sensitive and resilient corals change expression of hundreds of genes, but the resilient corals had higher expression under control conditions across 60 of these genes. These “frontloaded” transcripts were less up-regulated in resilient corals during heat stress and included thermal tolerance genes such as heat shock proteins and antioxidant enzymes, as well as a broad array of genes involved in apoptosis regulation, tumor suppression, innate immune response, and cell adhesion. We propose that constitutive frontloading enables an individual to maintain physiological resilience during frequently encountered environmental stress, an idea that has strong parallels in model systems such as yeast. [Barshis et al. 2013]

In other words, some coral genomes appear to be pre-adapted to cope with the environmental stress that coral reefs could face under climate change. That’s not to say that “resilient” corals are immortal – this study only provides a small glimpse at genetic adaptation, and events like coral bleaching can be caused by many different factors.

To add even more complexity, corals have these things called symbionts (Symbiodinium spp.) that live embedded in coral tissue and provide the corals with food. Because they harbor symbionts, corals aren’t just running a marathon – they’re running a marathon with a small child strapped to their back. A small child which can shout in your ear, complain about the bounciness of your running, and ask for a drink of water every half mile. The coral genome has to embark on a cellular response to temperature stress, while simultaneously turning on genes that tell its symbiont to STOP FREAKING OUT! Barshis et al. didn’t look at symbiont gene expression, but ponder whether particular symbiont genomes could contribute to “super corals” that are even more resilient than the populations measured in this study.

This study provides an exciting first glimpse at how corals might adapt to climate change at the cellular level. But alas, as always there are many questions still to be answered: How does the “frontloading” gene expression response happen in normal populations (e.g. not under controlled lab conditions), and how is it turned on over time in response to environmental variation? Given that some of the identified genes are involved in multiple cellular pathways, how do gene expression changes ultimately (and simultaneously) affect both coral health and stress tolerance? We don’t have the answers yet, but more coral genomics work is surely on the horizon!

Reference:

Barshis DJ, Ladner JT, Oliver TA, Seneca FO, Traylor-Knowles N, Palumbi SR. (2013) Genomic basis for coral resilience to climate change. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 110(4):1387–92.

The post Coral reefs, let's unzip your genes. first appeared on Deep Sea News.

Have some of your own to add? Drop us a line below.

Sources: Wikimedia Commons, Ron McPeak, Judi333, Trine Galloway, East Bay Express, Shutterstock

The post Fishes of Instagram #throwbackthurday first appeared on Deep Sea News.

This shot is an incredible close-up of fluid flow. The day-glo bunches*, those are coral polyps each only 1 mm across.  The lines are the tracks from fluorescent beads that move with the water, illustrating how water flows. Away from the coral, at the upper part of the picture, the water is flowing nearly horizontally.  But near the coral, these lines are pointed right into the surface of the coral indicating water is flowing right to the polyps!  And the hair-like cilia on the surface of the coral is what causes water, and what ever particles and nutrients are flowing along with it, to be redirected towards the hungry polyps. Clearly, I need to grow me some cilia to maximize my consumption before I hit up the next all-you-can-eat buffet.

* Normally these aren’t day-glo, but the coral has a green fluorescent protein (GFP) that lights up when you hit it with the fluorescent light that is used to illuminate the water-tracking beads.

The post Even corals heart fluid dynamics first appeared on Deep Sea News.

It seems that “native” fluorescence like this may not actually serve an adaptive function. Corals aren’t subjected to those UV wavelengths much in nature, so there’s no selective force to promote the evolution of this kind of trait. Instead, it’s more likely a wonderful and beautiful coincidence that can be exploited to make spectacular YouTube videos like this one!  The culprits are different protein pigments in the corals and their symbiotic algae (Symbiodinium spp.) that serve important biological functions for the coral, acting as electron donors in biochemical reactions, as anti-oxidants and other functions. But, they also just happen to fluoresce under the right wavelengths of illumination.  This class of proteins includes the famous GFP, Green Fluorescent Protein, first isolated from jellyfish but these days genetically engineered into a whale range of organisms as a molecular biological tool.

Video link via @DrBondar on Twitter. More about Carin here.

The post TGIF – The spectacular fluorescent colours of Coral Reefs first appeared on Deep Sea News.

“On Jan. 6, about about 50 genuine tortoise shell items were listed for sale through ebay, said Gary Appelson, advocacy coordinator for the nonprofit Caribbean Conservation Corporation (CCC). The illegal products included intricately designed hair ornaments and glasses cases. The bidding on an unworked “scute” or piece of hawksbill shell was at $480, with nearly 30 bids registered. The seller, listed only as “isabeII4,” said it was “perfectly legal” to sell the piece because it had been given as a gift many years ago, implying that it was originally purchased before the Endangered Species Act was passed. IsabeII4 suggested that the piece, when worked, would make several sets of wrist cuffs or hair combs.”

In 2007 an International Fund for Animal Welfare probe also found endangered species or products from them being traded illegally on eBay.

“An IFAW report in 2007 revealed that at least 90% of all investigated ivory listings on eBay were legally suspect. Furthermore, [a] released 2008 IFAW investigation revealed that ivory traded on eBay significantly increased in the United States since the 2007 report.”

That 2008 report found that two-thirds of the online trade in endangered animals, especially ivory from elephants, occurred on eBay.

eBay has enacted policies but many have found these polices to be inadequate and nearly impossible to enforce.  In 2006, eBay banned the sale of smalltooth sawfish, an endangered species, but inly in response to pressure from the Ocean Conservancy.

“A 2004 study of eBay sales of sawfish snouts found about 20 transactions a month. Prices averaged $119 a snout but went as high as $1,242.”

But issues with endangered and vulnerable species for sale at eBay persist.  In 2010, a couple who used eBay to sell endangered animals they had taxidermied.

Earlier this year Alexis Rudd, a graduate student in the Department of Biology at the University of Hawai’I, posted to Twitter (@SoundingTheSea) fidning endangered Hawaiian land snails on Ebay and Etsy.

All this has come to our attention at DSN when the Miami NewTimes published the story “Coral Reefs Are Being Decimated, All for a Few Gaudy Trinkets”

“Kate Lunz didn’t know what to expect as she piloted her white Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission truck to the Port of Tampa in July 2010. The day before, customs authorities had called the 32-year-old, PhD-toting marine biologist and asked her to inspect the contents of two 40-foot shipping containers that had been sent from the Solomon Islands and pulled for investigation… The sight devastated Lunz. The rubble was actually a giant batch of stony coral — an order scientifically known as Scleractinia — an exceptionally fragile animal that’s vital to the health of the world’s oceans. Thousands of pieces had been plundered from the South Pacific and shipped halfway around the world to be cleaned, turned into tourist trinkets, and sold down the coast of Florida at a staggering markup.”

So the question we at DSN asked is where all this coral might have ended up if not confiscated.  A substantial number were likely to end up on eBay. Keep in mind that the Fiji is the #1 exporter of coral for the curio (decorative) trade and live rock (aquarium) trade.  The US is the #1 importer of Fiji coral.

Ebay’s policies explicitly forbid sales of endangered species or parts thereof and carries other specific prohibitions including walrus tusks and whale bones, including scrimshaw and any other item made of marine mammals, no matter when produced.  No seabirds or their feathers, eggs or nests. Nothing made of turtle shells. Nothing from polar bears. As well CITES permitting must be followed.

Blue, black, and organ pipe corals all occur in CITES II appendix.

Appendix II lists species that are not necessarily now threatened with extinction but that may become so unless trade is closely controlled. It also includes so-called “look-alike species”, i.e. species of which the specimens in trade look like those of species listed for conservation reasons (see Article II, paragraph 2 of the Convention). International trade in specimens of Appendix-II species may be authorized by the granting of an export permit or re-export certificate. No import permit is necessary for these species under CITES (although a permit is needed in some countries that have taken stricter measures than CITES requires). Permits or certificates should only be granted if the relevant authorities are satisfied that certain conditions are met, above all that trade will not be detrimental to the survival of the species in the wild. (See Article IV of the Convention).

To reiterate an exporting but not importing permit is required.  In just a quick search Al, aka para_sight here at DSN, found multiple examples

Blue coral (CITES II) permit needed for international shipping

listed with worldwide shipping

listed with worldwide shipping

Listed with worldwide shipping

Listed with worldwide shipping

Black coral (CITES II) permit needed for international shipping

Listed with worldwide shipping

Listed with worldwide shipping

Listed with worldwide shipping

Listed with worldwide shipping

Listed with worldwide shipping

Organ pipe coral (CITES II) permit needed for international shipping

LOTS

We are not saying these are illegal activities but there is no proof by either the seller or eBay that permitting requirements have been met. Although, we at DSN are opposed to any selling or purchasing of corals as harvesting corals causes considerable habitat destruction and degradation of reefs.

In my own searching I found some suspect marine and freshwater mollusks.  Freshwater streams and lakes throughout the U.S. possess endemic clams.  Many of these because of their rarity and anthropogenic threats occur on CITES lists, including the most severe Appendix 1.  None of these protected freshwater clams occur on eBay.  However, these species are extremely difficult to tell apart even by experts.  How do we know if these species are actually the nonprotected species?  Likewise, several species of the Giant Clam, Tridacna, occur on the Appendix II.  Exporting and quotas from key countries are heavily regulated.  How do we know if the 166 specimens of Tridacna listed on eBay have met CITES requirements?  We don’t.

All this suggests that eBay has not went far enough to protect vulnerable and endangered species.  No evidence exists to instill any confidence in buyers that items on eBay can be legally sold.  Is eBay still a blackmarket for protected animals? I can’t tell but for now its best not to buy from eBay until I can be.

The post Finding Endangered Life on eBay first appeared on Deep Sea News.

My good colleague Dr. Bruce Carlson just uploaded a very nice short YouTube video about a reef blenny called Exallias brevis.  Exallias is fairly special (but by no means unique) not just because it’s quite the looker, but because it is a coral predator.  Like many blennies it has a mouth that points down (subterminal) and a row of comb like teeth, but unlike most blennies, which use these for cropping algae, Exallias scrapes them across the coral surface, rasping off any tissue that cannot be withdrawn into the cup of any individual polyp.  There’s a really nice freeze frame of this in the video.  It seems that grazing scars caused by Exallias may have been misinterpreted by some folks as a form of “multifocal bleaching” and there’s some active work happening right now to determine to what degree multifocal  bleaching is a real disease issue and how much is the effects of Exallias.  Either way, it’s a fascinating little fish and an interesting case study that not everything is as it seems in the ocean.

The post TGIF – Exallias brevis, a very special fish first appeared on Deep Sea News.