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Corals
Welcome to the Coral Collection
Coral reefs cover less than one percent of the Earth's surface but are home to at least twenty-five percent of all marine species. They are highly productive ecosystems that support marine life, protect land from hurricanes and storm surges, provide life-saving drugs from the sea, and supply food and income for half a billion people.
The Georgia Museum of Natural History's assemblage of reef-building corals includes two coral collections. The primary coral collection was made by Dr. James W. Porter (Curator of Marine Invertebrates here at the Georgia Museum of Natural History) throughout his 50-year career as a marine ecologist. The second collection includes specimens from the late Dr. Thomas F. Goreau, Director of the Discovery Bay Marine Laboratory in Discovery Bay, Jamaica. This collection is temporarily on loan to the GMNH for curation.
Corals in the Porter collection come from every ocean and constitute the sixth largest coral collection in the world. These specimens are now permanently housed in the Georgia Museum of Natural History. This extraordinary collection compliments Dr. Porter's collection of rare books and manuscripts on Corals and Coral Reefs. This professional library is housed at the University of Georgia's Hargrett Rare Book & Manuscript Library. The book collection contains more than 4,000 volumes and includes over 90% of all books published on this topic back to 1500. Together, the books and coral specimens constitute an extraordinary archive of one the most biological diverse and critically endangered ecosystems on Earth.
