Scientists Amazed at 400-Year-Old Giant Coral Thriving in Great Barrier Reef

It may not be the largest coral in the world, but it sure is significant to the ecosystem, as far as ecologists are concerned.

In the coast of Goolboodi (Orpheus Island), Queensland, an "exceptionally large", 400-year-old coral has been discovered on the Great Barrier Reef - the world's largest coral reef system.

The giant coral is 10.5 meters wide, 5.3 meters tall, and 'hemispherical in shape'. It is twice the size of its nearest cousin, 2.4 meters wider than the previously widest Great Barrier Reef coral, and comparable to length and height of a modern double-decker bus.

Dating back between 421 and 438 years ago, the reef's age was around the time Lieutenant James Cook colonized Australia and birth of Charles Darwin, founder of the term "biology".

The coral became significant for marine life

(Photo : Photo by Daniel Öberg on Unsplash)

For four centuries, the coral also known as Muga dhambi, named by the local Manbarra people, has sheltered marine animals.

"It's like a block of apartments," said James Cook University adjunct associate professor and managing director of Reef Ecologic, Adam Smith. "It attracts other species. There's other corals, there's fish, there's other animals around that use it for shelter or for feeding, so it's pretty important for them."

A group of scientists and community members participating in a marine citizen science course discovered the coral off the coast of Goolboodi - the Indigenous name for Orpheus Island, part of the Palm Island group in Queensland.

While local fishers and researchers had been aware of the coral's existence in the past, it was until they examined and measured it did they found it was more than just what it looks like.

"It's a bit like finding a giant redwood tree in the middle of a botanic gardens," Smith said. "James Cook University has a research station at Orpheus Island and there's been 600 scientific papers written on corals, fish and seaweed in the area.

"Over the last 20 or 30 years, no one has noticed, or observed, or thought it newsworthy enough to share photos, or document, or do research on this giant coral."

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The 'Big Coral' to be monitored for given threats of climate change

The Manbarra people, which are traditional custodians of Palm Island, had named the coral Muga dhambi which means 'Big coral' and belongs to the genus Porites sp.

Included in the team who dove and measured Muga dhambi was 17-year-old Kailash Cook, and 'godfather of coral' Dr Charlie Veron, 76-year-old, who helped identify it.

The authors of the journal Scientific Reports calls for protection given to Great Barrier Reef from increasing threats from climate change, declining water quality, overfishing and coastal development.

Smith said most of coral species on the Great Barrier Reef lived to 450 or 460 years and lived through lots of cyclones and coral bleaching events - "who knows? It's a very diverse, hard environment on the Great Barrier Reef."

"It's obviously an old resilient coral," he said.

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