Fw: Julian Sprung's email.

[Les Kaufman]

I agree with Bill but predict a different manifestation.  The microborers
are actually present in the skeleton of LIVING corals.  I'd predict a
change in the relationship between the endoliths (particularly the fungi)
and the coral polyps that would be recorded in skeletal microsctructure.
Chris Bentis is currently doing his doctoral work on this at Berkely,
we had a paper recently in Biological Bulletin.

Yet another idea- in many parts of the world, the very first surficial
recruits to bare substratum are Folliculina, a sessile ciliate.  They
present as little pepper-flecks on the coral surface (their chitinous
tests are often dark grey or black).

Les Kaufman
Boston University Marine Program
Department of Biology
5 Cummington Street
Boston, MA 02215
lesk at bio.bu.edu
617-353-5560 office
617-353-6965 lab
617-353-6340 fax