The scleractinian coral Archohella living on the coastal shores of Queensland, Australia

Abstract

Live colonies of the oculinid genus Archohelia Vaughan, previously known only from the fossil records of the West Indies and Central and North America, have been discovered in shallow water off Rat Island on the coast of Central Queensland, Australia. Archohelia rediviva n. sp. differs from the genotype A. fimonensis in having the tertiary septa regularly fused to the six secondary septa. The small white colonies of A. rediviva with branches up to 10 cm long grow more or less erectly from thin encrusting bases. They occur in 3.5 metres of sheltered, turbid water by the shoreline of a rocky island having no fringing coral reef. The coral is subject to strong tidal currents and large changes in salinity. There are no hints as to the provenance of this coral from the other occurrences of this genus or Oculina in Australia.