Until now, it has been well-established that coral complex in the Arabian/Persian Gulf only exist in the coastal regions of Bahrain, Iran, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates and it was thought that there are no coral reefs in Iraq. However, here for the first time we show the existence of a living 28 km2 large coral reef in this country. These corals are adapted to one of the most extreme coral-bearing environments on earth: the seawater temperature in this area ranges between 14 and 34°C. The discovery of the unique coral reef oasis in the turbid coastal waters of Iraq will stimulate the interest of governmental agencies, environmental organizations, as well as of the international scientific community working on the fundamental understanding of coral marine ecosystems and global climate today.

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A new species of the genus Cocconeis is described. Cocconeis sawensis sp. nov. was observed as epiphyte on the macrophyte Chara Linn. sp., collected from a saline lake in Iraq (Sawa Lake). Description of the new species is based on details observed with light and scanning electron microscopy. Cocconeis sawensis belongs to a group of taxa similar to Cocconeis euglypta Ehrenberg, but differs in a number of fine ultrastructural features including stria density and hymenes, raphe, valve shape and rim, valvocopula, hymen perforations and fimbriae shape as well as a presence of a pore-like structure reminiscent of a vestigial raphe in the sternum valve. A comparison with closely related taxa is given.

SUMMARY: The rate of oxygen consumption of the subtidal hymenosomatid crab Elamenopsis kempi, was studied from h -1 .The overall Q 10 value was 1.92. The males were thermally sensitive at 15-25°C and compensate at 20-30°C, whereas the females, both nonovigerous and ovigerous were compensating at all temperatures.

A population of the intertidal, ovoviviparous, cirolanid isopod Annina mesopotamica was studied at the Al-Chibassy