[Coral-List] FIELD OF GIANTS

[David Blakeway]

Revisiting this 2021 article about the big GBR Porites.. It's a little
disappointing that the authors hadn't picked up on the 2020 article, IN THE
SAME JOURNAL, describing a Samoan Porites colony a full ORDER OF MAGNITUDE
more massive than the GBR example. Is literature review becoming an
afterthought?
Also, the abstract contains the sentence: "This is the largest
diameter *Porites
*coral measured by scientists and the sixth highest coral measured in the
GBR." As written, the first clause of this sentence is clearly incorrect.
It was probably intended to apply only to the GBR, but, if so, should have
been punctuated: "This is the largest diameter *Porites *coral measured by
scientists, and the sixth highest coral measured, in the GBR." (which still
seems to imply, to me at least, that non-scientists can't be trusted with a
tape measure - I'm sure that was not the intention).
Of course, it's impossible to write the perfect paper, and unfair to expect
the editor and reviewers to catch everything. But surely these oversights
shouldn't have got through? I think I am over-sensitive to this stuff but,
for me, they spoil what is otherwise a great little paper.
signed K.R. Mudgeon