[dirtboy]

Whilst Lord Howe is located in cooler waters at latitude 31 south, it has a remarkable mix of tropical as well as temperate marine life. The larvae of tropical species, including corals, are swept south by the warm East Australia Current which flows past the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland before swirling out into the north Tasman sea

Well, there goes your coral theory.

[Truth666]

I'm collecting the open questions of the scope of this thread - here is
Qu01 : possiblity of current coral of Lord Howe having arrived in the last 10,000 years.
I'll answer later.

[Truth666]

"Whilst Lord Howe is located in cooler waters at latitude 31 south, it has a remarkable mix of tropical as well as temperate marine life. The larvae of tropical species, including corals, are swept south by the warm East Australia Current which flows past the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland before swirling out into the north Tasman sea" - Well, there goes your coral theory

Double-header ( Coris bulbifrons ), endemic in the Lord Howe reef - a pretty large fish ...

Do I need to get into the discussion if coral larvae can colonise an island more than 550 km away ? - BTW, this is something for what there's no proof, I would never use it as an argument, but that's a personal decision ...

Or into smaller sized evidence, like all the endemic corals of Lord Howe's reef ?