WASHINGTON— The National Marine Fisheries Service proposed today to change the status of the pillar coral, a species found in Florida waters and elsewhere in the Caribbean, from threatened to ...

A closeup of a well-preserved Late Holocene hard pillar coral (Dendrogyra cylindrus), now genetically extinct along the Florida reef tract due to a disease outbreak in 2014.

Within the last five years, it has been crucial to restoring coral reefs throughout the Caribbean, and has cultivated eight different species, including the notoriously hard-to-breed Pillar coral.

Two Critically Endangered coral species: Staghorn Coral (Acropora cervicornis) and Pillar Coral (Dendrogyra cylindrus) at Roatán, Honduras.