New black coral species found on Pacific Ocean seabed

Team Udayavani, Oct 31, 2020, 6:00 PM IST

Three species of black coral have been discovered on the northern Pacific Ocean seabed.

They were discovered on deep seamounts and ridges in the mineral-rich Prime Crust Zone, which stretches from the Mariana Trench to the Hawaiian islands.

Daniel Wagner of Conservation International said the species are “slow-growing and long-lived” and “also provide important habitat for many other species”.

As reported by News18, The new black coral species are so named because of their black skeletons, but they can appear pink, white, or various other colours because of the living tissues growing over the skeleton.

Previous studies have found a black coral species more than 4,250 years old