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Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →The “golden tree” coral is Laurinque elenya, a bright-yellow deep-sea octocoral collected from seamounts off Costa Rica. Its unusual anatomy and genomic evidence led scientists to describe not only a new species, but also a new genus, Laurinque, and a new family, Laurinqueidae. The study’s samples came from depths of 360–529 meters; that range describes where researchers collected specimens, not the species’ full known depth range.
What is the golden tree coral?
Laurinque elenya is a gorgonian octocoral: a colonial marine invertebrate whose individual polyps form a branching structure. Odalisca Breedy and colleagues formally described the species, genus and family in a peer-reviewed paper published in ZooKeys on June 30, 2026. The paper used morphology and genetic evidence together to classify the coral. Read the paper in ZooKeys.
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What it looks like
Living colonies are bright yellow and grow in large, irregular fans with dense lateral branches. Some branches join one another. The colonies have thin coenenchyme—the tissue covering the supporting skeleton—and rods and spindle-shaped elements within it. Their tubular polyps are conspicuously elongated and arranged around the branches.
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Where was Laurinque elenya found, and how deep does it live?
Researchers collected specimens on seamounts off the insular shelf of Isla del Coco and at three geological features along Costa Rica’s Pacific margin. They used the ROV SuBastian on two expeditions: the 2019 FK190106 cruise aboard R/V Falkor and the 2023 FKt230918 cruise aboard R/V Falkor (too). The collected specimens came from 360–529 meters deep.
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Those collection records establish where and at what depths the studied specimens were found. They do not establish the coral’s complete geographic range, total population size or detailed ecological role. A small set of sampled seamount localities should not be mistaken for a full distribution map.
Why did scientists create a new coral family?
The family-level classification was not based simply on the coral looking unusual. The authors found that its anatomy and broader genetic evidence placed it on a distinct evolutionary branch, closest to—but outside—Eunicellidae. They concluded that the combination of traits justified a new family, Laurinqueidae.
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Why the usual genetic markers were not enough
Three commonly used single-gene markers did not point to the same family: mitochondrial mtMutS, mitochondrial COI and nuclear 28S rDNA each placed Laurinque with a different family. That disagreement left its placement unresolved by those markers alone.
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1Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteHow broader genomic evidence changed the picture
The researchers analyzed phylogenomic data from ultraconserved elements and exons. Those analyses resolved Laurinque as a distinct lineage most closely related to Eunicellidae. Combined with the coral’s morphological distinctions, that result supported recognition of Laurinqueidae. The finding is not that DNA proved the coral unrelated to every other coral; rather, the evidence supported a distinct family with a nearest identified relationship to Eunicellidae.
What do the names Laurinque and elenya mean?
The paper derives Laurinque from Laurinquë, glossed as “golden tree” in Quenya, and says elenya refers to stars. The naming account connects the vivid, tree-like yellow colonies with brittle stars seen in the underwater landscape; that image is context for the name, not evidence that the coral has a particular ecological relationship with brittle stars.
Lead researcher Odalisca Breedy described the moment that inspired the name: “I saw the octocoral garden for the first time in 2019 and I was impressed by the beauty of the landscape, which inspired, later the elvish name of the taxa.” The publisher’s account of the paper appeared in ScienceDaily on October 8, 2026.
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What remains unknown?
- The species’ full geographic range beyond the sampled Costa Rican seamount sites.
- Its population size or abundance.
- Its detailed ecological role in the seamount communities where it was collected.
The study establishes a new taxonomic identity from documented specimens and explains why the authors recognized a new family. It does not answer these broader distribution and ecology questions.
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