Newly discovered glowing coral acts as a deep-sea burglar alarm

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2025-11-05 11:01

International

Kise H, et al (2025)

International researchers have discovered a new species of bioluminescent coral in a deep-sea cave in Japan. The coral didn’t glow on its own, but blinked bright green when poked. Researchers say this species might use the glow defensively – acting as a “burglar alarm” which attracts second-order predators to attack the coral's predators.

Media release

From: The Royal Society

**Glow in the D-ARK: a new bioluminescent species of Corallizoanthus (Anthozoa: Zoantharia: Parazoanthidae) from southern Japan**

Royal Society Open Science

Bioluminescence, the ability of living organisms to produce light, is widespread in the ocean and has evolved many times across different groups of animals. In corals and their relatives (Anthozoa), light production is thought to have originated once in octocorals, but its history in other groups remains less understood. This study describes a newly discovered glowing species of zoantharian, found living on deep-sea octocorals off southern Japan. Researchers documented its bioluminescent activity and measured its light spectrum. These findings provide new insights into coral evolution and highlight the ecological importance of light in deep-sea environments.

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Journal/
conference: Royal Society Open Science

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology Tsukuba, Japan

Funder: This study was supported by the Ocean Shot Research Grant Program to Y.F. The Ocean Shot Research Grant Program of the Ocean Policy Research Institute of the Sasakawa Peace Foundation (OPRI-SPF) is supported by the Nippon Foundation. H.K. was supported by the Research Laboratory on Environmentally Conscious Developments and Technologies (E-code) at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology. M.B.-U. was supported by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) FOREST Program (grant no. JPMJFR214D).

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