Beneath the soft bodies of scleractinian, or stony corals, polyps secrete a calcium carbonate skeleton, and it is this skeleton that becomes the foundation of coral reef ecosystems. Coral colonies ...

Rising acidity reduces the rate at which reefs develop. Crucial to coral health are colorful algae called zooxanthellae. These algae live in coral polyps, providing coral with its bright color.

Parasphaerasclera mcfaddenae is a new species of soft coral that has a yellow center and long polyps with tentacles ... according to the Coral Reef Alliance. Nine nominal species are included ...

Polyps collectively bulge, branch ... “It can guide your hypotheses for what you might see in the real world.” Coral reefs have been around for millions of years, and many of today’s living reefs are ...

Corals are living colonies of tiny tube-like animals called polyps - the individuals of some species are just 3mm long. Each polyp has a mouth surrounded by tentacles, usually arranged with six-fold ...

Those polyps clone themselves over and over again, eventually forming larger coral colonies that build reefs. That’s how typical reef-building corals, like the iconic elkhorn and staghorn ...

Coral reefs are made up of colonies of hundreds to thousands of tiny individual corals, called polyps. These marine invertebrate animals have hard exoskeletons made of calcium carbonate, and are ...

Without healthy coral reefs, the islands wouldn’t even exist ... Sometimes as small as a pencil tip, polyps make up the coral ...

Our Planet, the incredible new documentary series narrated by Sir David Attenborough, explores the beauty of life on Earth and highlights the threats that we pose to it. In the coastal seas episode, ...

An individual coral is a polyp. It’s a very small and simple ... On average they grow between 0.5 and 2cm per year. The reefs we see today have been growing over the past 5,000 to 10,000 years.