Help on using CoralSearch:

CoralSearch is based on the Corals of the World book by JEN Veron and M Stafford Smith and is designed for people wanting more information about a coral or group of corals. It is not designed to be a taxonomic guide; the forth coming CoralId product will be a true digital taxonomic guide. CoralSearch provides a simple search engine as a front end to the information contained in the Corals of the World book.

To use CoralSearch use the following steps:

If you know the family, genus or species name of the coral then use the first section of the search form to enter in what you know. To search by taxonomic characters first tick the Taxonomy box:

Now if you know the family select the 'Family' radio button and select the family from the drop down list:

If you know the Genus select the Genus radio button and select the Genus from the drop down list. Note that you can't select 'Family' and 'Genus', just one or the other:

If you know the species or part of the genus or species then enter what you know in the "Species is like:" box. Note that this return any full species name that contains the text you enter. So if you enter 'Acropora' then it will return all corals with the text 'Acropora' in their full name (Genus Species). For example to search for all corals with the text 'grand' in their full species name you would enter:

This returns two corals: Acropora grandis and Hydnophora grandis.

If you know something about the life form or morphology of the coral (such as it is branching, digitate, etc) then tick the box in the blue header and then tick all those life forms that apply to the species or set of species you are interested. NOTE: if you choose more than one life form the search engine will look for corals that match both criteria - if you select Branching and Encrusting then it will only return corals that have both life forms.

To select only corals that have both branching and encrusting forms you would select:

There are two basic regions where corals occur; the indo-pacific and the atlantic (including the Caribbean). If you wish to use the region to help select the coral tick the box in the blue header and then select the region. Note that only one region can be selected.

To only search for corals in the Atlantic region you would select:

Once you have entered the search criteria click on the 'Search' button and the system will return all matching corals.

The most common cause of errors is not 'ticking' the box on the blue header to indicate that the search should include that item, for example the following would give an error:

You have selected a Genus but the tick box on the blue header (with the red circle around it) has not been selected.