Topic Presentation: Corals: what’s in a name?

Speaker room - Saturday, September 10 12:00 PM

Coral taxonomy is moving on. When I started working on corals, identifying them to species (or rather supposed species) was a complex affair requiring a detailed knowledge of skeletal structures and dozens of volumes of complex monographs. That was how it was before the age of scuba diving. The reality of the reef changed that completely because living corals could be studied in detail in all the environments in which they occurred and in all parts of the world. This revealed huge variation in species, both environmental and geographic. It also allowed the majority of species to be identified from photos. Today, with information technology, coral identification has taken another leap. We are now interfacing taxonomy with the genetic basis of species as well as their reproductive mechanisms. This has led to a re-think of the evolutionary process which underpins it all. This presentation will trace this history, then go on to issues revealed by aquarists and what aquarium studies can potentially contribute to our accumulating knowledge of these fascinating animals.

Presented By:

Charlie Veron

Sponsored By:

Exhibitor Spotlight:

Zoo Med

http://zoomed.com/

At Zoo Med, we have a deep love and understanding for all aspects of aquarium keeping. Being a privately held, family run company, we care deeply for the animals that we manufacture products for. We will not simply make a product just to make a buck; animals really do come first in our world. We make over 50% of our product range in the United States and Europe. Yes, we could make everything in China, but instead we choose to make our fluorescent T-5 and T-8 lamps in Germany, our filters in Italy, and all our foods and vacation blocks right here in the USA. We recently brought our terrarium manufacturing back from China to the USA, which will result in reducing annual carbon emissions by 45.5 tons. That’s the same as taking 114 cars off the road for one year!

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