Research Ideas and Outcomes 6: e53181 doi: 10.3897/rio.6.e53181 Reviewable v1 Workshop Report Deep-sea Coral Taxonomy Workshop, Colombia 2019 Luisa F Dueñas , Cristina Cedeño-Posso , Juan Armando Sanchez , Santiago Herrera ‡ Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional de Colombia - Sede Bogotá, Bogota, Colombia § Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras – INVEMAR, Santa Marta, Colombia | Laboratorio de Biología Molecular Marina – BIOMMAR, Bogotá, Colombia ¶ Biology Department, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA., United States of America Corresponding author: Luisa F Dueñas (luisadue@gmail.com ) Received: 12 Apr 2020 | Published: 16 Apr 2020 Citation: Dueñas LF, Cedeño-Posso C, Sanchez JA, Herrera S (2020) Deep-sea Coral Taxonomy Workshop, Colombia 2019. Research Ideas and Outcomes 6: e53181. https://doi.org/10.3897/rio.6.e53181 Abstract Corals are some of the conspicuous taxa in deep-sea ecosystems. Yet, characterizing coral diversity is difficult and requires a combination of both morphological and genetic data. Many leading coral taxonomy experts are close-to retirement or have already retired. It is now imperative that the hands-on expertise that these taxonomists have – much of which is not captured in manuscripts or books – is transferred to the next generation. The Deep-Sea Coral Taxonomy Workshop, funded by a Lounsbery award from the Deep-Sea Biology Society, aimed to provide a training opportunities and build taxonomic capacity in Colombia and Latin America. Workshop participants examined the deep-sea coral diversity of the southern western Caribbean, a poorly explored region. The three-day workshop was based mainly on hands-on activities focused on octocorals and black corals, and included introductory talks to the taxonomy of these groups and identification activities using specimens. Thanks to the workshop, it was possible to review and update the classification database of the Makuriwa Marine Natural History Museum collection. Additionally, four new species from the families Clavulariidae, Plexauridae and Gorgoniidae were identified and will be described in the near future. ‡ § | ¶ © Dueñas L et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.