A "Golden Tree" Grows Under the Sea
The News
Deep off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, scientists just discovered a bright yellow coral so unusual it needed a whole new family of its own on the tree of life. The team named it Laurinque — "golden tree" in the elf-language from The Lord of the Rings — and found it thriving 360 to 529 meters (about 1,200 to 1,700 feet) beneath the waves, surrounded by wiggling brittle stars.
"Curiouser and curiouser!" cried Professor Pip, patting his pockets on a rocky beach at sunset. He pulled out a magnifying glass, a small notebook labeled "Notes," and — with a great deal of tail-swishing — a wide glass tank sloshing with dark blue water.
Mia and Leo peered in. Inside, Pip had arranged a bright yellow branching model, no bigger than a teacup, shaped like a tiny tree. All around its base, dozens of pipe-cleaner brittle stars huddled together.
"Ah! Meet the newest creature on Earth's family tree," Pip said. "Scientists just found it deep under the ocean. It's called Laurinque — a golden-tree coral."
"It looks like a real tree!" Leo said.
"It looks like a tree, yes — but here is the wondrous bit." Pip held up his magnifying glass. "A coral is not a plant at all. A coral is a giant apartment building made of thousands of tiny animals called polyps. Each polyp is a wee squishy creature with waving arms, and together they build a hard, branching home."
Mia leaned in, wide-eyed. "So the whole gold tree is made of… animals?"
"Precisely! Thousands of them, all cousins, all growing together." Pip's spectacles slipped as he grinned. "Now, when the scientists pulled up this coral's DNA — that's the little instruction book inside every living thing — they got a shock. Its instructions didn't match any coral family we know. It was so different that they had to invent a brand-new family, just for it!"
He tapped the tank. "And around its trunk live these bendy little brittle stars — cousins of sea stars, with five whippy arms."
"Oh!" said Leo. "It's like finding a new kind of dog that isn't a labrador OR a poodle — you'd need a whole new dog family for it!"
"Exactly right!" Pip clapped his paws. "That is taxonomy — sorting living things into family groups. And this golden tree is telling us the deep ocean is still hiding relatives we've never met."
Pip looked out over the water as the last light shimmered on the waves. "There are creatures down there right now that no human being has ever seen."
He handed each child a magnifying glass. "Now I wonder — what tiny bit of nature lives right in your backyard that no one has looked at closely yet?"
Spark a Conversation
- Corals look like plants but are actually animals. What clues might tell you an animal from a plant?
- Why do you think we still discover new creatures in the deep ocean but not many new ones on land?
- If you found a new species, what would you name it — and why?