Twin-like corals

Cryptic species pose a great challenge for the traditional taxonomy and estimates of the actual species diversity: similar morphology of these species (a basis for traditional taxonomic identification) exists despite of different evolutionary history and often reproductive separation. The published work is the first such detailed phylogeographic analysis of the scleractinian coral known as Plesiastrea versipora widespread in the Indo-Pacific. The analysis of molecular data, as well as the macroscopic and microscopic skeletal features of over 80 specimens from the entire range of P. versipora, indicates existence of two distinct groups of species: forms belonging to the “temperate clade” (with the characteristics of the type of Plesiastrea versipora) and to the “tropical clade“, represented by the restored species Plesiastrea peroni. The work exemplifies the utility of an integrated skeletal and molecular approach to coral taxonomy.