Ten new species of soft coral have been discovered in New Zealand by a marine biologist. The new species were found by Gustav Kessel among tens of thousands of preserved specimens housed at the NIWA Invertebrate Collection in Wellington, the Auckland War Memorial Museum, and other international institutions.
Kessel examined 96 specimens collected from New Zealand some of which had been collected but left unexamined since the late 1960s. Kessel’s Ph.D. work at the Victoria University of Wellington has debunked the belief New Zealand had one common shallow-water species of Dead man’s fingers, Alcyonium aurantiacum.
What was thought to be one species is actually several superficially similar, but very diverse species, according to Kessel. “While New Zealand is a hotspot of soft coral diversity, our corals are better studied in the deep sea than at shallow depths,” he says.
“Virtually nothing is known about the many species within diving or even snorkeling depths around the country.”
Ten new species in two genera
The 10 corals Kessel identified have been classified into two new genera endemic to New Zealand. Iwi Ngati Kuri named one genus from the Far North, Kotatea, which means orange soft corals. The second new genus is called Ushanaia, named after Kessel’s fiancé Ushana.
Ngati Kuri named four of the 10 new species, predominantly collected from Manawatawhi, Three Kings Islands, and Piwhane, Spirits Bay.
“Ngati Kuri representatives carefully crafted scientific names based in te reo, and seeing the species I worked so hard to identify given names with such deep historical and spiritual meaning was the most rewarding part of my Ph.D.,” Kessel said.
The four new Kotatea are K.teorowai, K.kurakoottingotingo, K.kapotaiora and K.raekura. The Alcyonium soft coral genus contains over 60 described species from tropical and temperate seas.