October 2, 2025 — A new deep-sea coral species from the tropical western Pacific has a name that makes people smile – Iridogorgia chewbacca.
The colony stands alone on rocky bottoms, with a shining stem and long branches that look a bit like flowing hair.
Researchers first noticed the coral species off Molokai in 2006, then saw it near the Mariana Trench in 2016.
he Molokai colony measured about 4 feet (1.2 meters) tall, the Mariana sample reached roughly 20 inches (50 centimeters), and the branches grow up to 15 inches (38 centimeters) long.
Finding Chewbacca coral
The work features Les Watling of the University of Hawaii at Manoa (UHM), a longtime deep-sea coral expert. His university profile shows decades of taxonomic and exploratory research in these waters.
The team formally described Iridogorgia chewbacca together with a sister species, Iridogorgia curva.
In a peer-reviewed study, the authors report that the genus Iridogorgia now includes 14 species, with 10 recorded in the tropical western Pacific.
The paper also noted that a common field characteristic, the direction in which the spiral grows, does not reliably separate species. Genetic evidence helped sort species boundaries where lookalikes made things tricky.