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In this study, strain Coronado(T) was isolated from a stadium seat at Niedermeyer Field, Coronado High School in Coronado, California, USA as part of a nationwide Citizen Science project (Project MERCCURI - www.spacemicrobes.org.) One goal of Project MERCCURI was to collect bacterial isolates to be used for an experiment aboard the International Space Station (ISS). A cotton swab was used to swab the surface of a stadium seat, then colonies were isolated via plating onto agar plates. Almost full length (primers 27F and 1391R) 16S rRNA sequencing showed 99% identity to a few uncultured sequences at NCBI, but no more than 95.5% identity (by BLAST, \cite{2231712}) to the nearest cultured representative (_Porphyrobacter donghaensis_) \cite{Yoon_2004}. Uncultured isolates with high identity (=>99%) were found in studies of deep ocean sediment and the human skin microbiome.  Phylogenetic and biochemical characteristics show that this isolate is clearly distinct from other members within the _Erythrobacteraceae_ family and is most closely related to the genus _Porphyrobacter_. However, a major taxonomic revision of this family is most likely required, as has been suggested by others (_e.g_. \cite{Rainey_2003}). Here we describe the genotypic, morphologic, and biochemical characteristics of strain Coronado(T), Coronado(T),  based on which we propose the name of _Porphyrobacter mercurialis_ sp. nov.