photo credit: Paul and Jill

In an interesting study announced recently, a team of Israeli and Taiwanese scientists have discovered that the common Sinularia can actually lay down solid reef structures like their distant hard coral relatives.  Of particular interest to reef conservationists is how this might have an impact on deep water reef growth.  Because Sinularia can inhabit areas with low light, they could serve as reef builders (albeit slow) in greater depths than the rapidly growing and expanding SPS/LPS corals. LINK