CoralPlanet
CORAL FACTS
Facts
- Coral is an animal
- Coral is made of the exoskeletons of dead polyps
- Polyps are very small, only a few centimeters long. They have tentacles around a circular mouth
- Corals begin when a coral polyp attatches to the seabed and divides into hundreds, even thousands, of duplicate polyps
- Coral polyps are translucent, and they get their color from the algae called zooxanthellae that gives them food.
- Polyps get most of their nutrients from the photosynthesis of the algae, but they also have deadly barbed tentacles they use to catch floating zooplankton
- It takes decades for a large piece of coral to grow
- The three main types of coral are fringing, barrier, and atoll coral
- Fringing coral is the most common, and it grows from the shore, surrounding islands and outlining beaches
- Barrier coral borders the coast, and is usually separated by an expanse of water leaving an expanse of deep water between the shore and the reef
- An atoll reef is when a fringing reef grows up from a sunken volcanic island. Atolls are circular or oval shaped, with a lagoon in the center like a barrier reef
- Branching corals can grow four inches each year, about the same speed as your hair!
- Rounded corals grow at only one inch to four fifths of and inch each year