[Truth666]

You say that in #127 you are questioning whether coral larvae could have journeyed to Lord Howe Island since the last ice age, and then specify that this be done "from scratch", which you then define as being restricted to the species that "survived the last ice age in Lord Howe". So what you're saying is that the species that survived the last ice age in Lord Howe could not have come to Lord Howe Island since the last ice age. FWIW, I agree.

You are right on this one -since I mentioned I wanted to keep "coral larvae coming again to Lord Howe" outside the scope of my answer, I should have used an extended scope for "from scratch", including also the coral that eventually arrived there.

[Physicist]

You are right on this one -since I mentioned I wanted to keep "coral larvae coming again to Lord Howe" outside the scope of my answer, I should have used an extended scope for "from scratch", including also the coral that eventually arrived there.

So why isn't that sufficient to explain the coral on Lord Howe Island?