photo

Smallest Coral Species

Turbinolia stephensoni
(Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Department of Invertebrate Zoology)

The Turbinolia genus of coral was thought to be extinct and only seen in the fossil record. But when Smithsonian coral expert Stephen Cairns examined another coral specimen collected from 90 meters deep in the sands of the Great Barrier Reef, he noticed similarities between it and the Turbinolia fossils he was familiar with. Cairns determined that the two corals are indeed related and belong to the same genus. Something that scientists believed was long extinct and only in the fossil record, was in fact alive today and hiding in the museum’s collections. You can see the tiny Turbinolia stephensoni from museum collections in the Objects of Wonder exhibit (with the help of a magnifying glass, of course).