Two Florida coral species declared 'functionally extinct'

Since the Ice Age, elkhorn and staghorn corals off Florida’s southern coast have been stacking their skeletons into elaborate, branching homes for parrotfish, eels and octopuses. “They’ve been the most important reef builders on these reefs for 10,000 years,” said Ross Cunning, a coral biologist with Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium. But researchers are using stark, new language to describe the status of the two species in Florida: functionally extinct.