Coral

see Anthozoa

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Corals are gastrovascular marine cnidarians (phylum Cnidaria; class Anthozoa) existing as small sea anemone-like polyps, typically forming colonies of many individuals. The group includes the important reef builders known as hermatypic corals, found in tropical oceans, and belonging to the subclass Zoantharia of order Scleractinia (formerly Madreporaria). The latter are also known as stony corals in as much as the living tissue thinly covers a skeleton composed of calcium carbonate. A large scale coral is actually formed of many individual polyps, up to a few millimetres in diameter, which are individual organisms. However they function as one organism by sharing nutrients via channels in the skeleton and are clones of each other, hence having the same DNA.

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The hermatypic corals obtain much of their nutrient requirement from symbiotic unicellular algae called zooxanthellae, and so are dependent upon growing in sunlight. As a result, these corals are usually found not far beneath the surface, although in clear waters corals can grow at depths of 60 m (200 ft). Corals breed by spawning, with many corals of the same species in a region releasing gametes simultaneously over a period of one to several nights around a full moon.

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Corals are major contributors to the physical structure of coral reefs that develop only in tropical and subtropical waters. Isolated corals exist even in cold waters, such as off the coast of Norway. The most extensive development of extant coral reef is the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Queensland, Australia. Indonesia is home to 581 of the world's 793 known coral reef-building coral species.

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Gastrovascular: Gastrovascular cavity, as the name indicates, functions in both digestion and the transport of nutrients to all parts of an animal body. Organisms belonging to two major phyla, the Cnidaria and the Platyhelminthes, possess gastrovascular cavities. The radially symmetrical cnidarians have a sac-like ...

Sea anemone: Suborder EndocoelantheaeFamily ActinernidaeFamily HalcuriidaeSuborder NyantheaeInfraorder AthenariaFamily AndresiidaeFamily AndwakiidaeFamily EdwardsiidaeFamily GalatheanthemidaeFamily HalcampidaeFamily HalcampoididaeFamily HaliactiidaeFamily HaloclavidaeFamily IlyanthidaeFamily LimnactiniidaeFamily...

Polyp: :This article is about the cnidarian polyps. For the medical condition, see Polyp (medicine)....

Coral related Images and Photos (experimental)

Coral III	Coral Sky	Coral Reef	Coral Shell I
The Coral	Coral Shell II	Red Coral I	The Coral Reef
Sapphire Coral	Amethyst Coral	Coral on Khaki I	Coral on Khaki IV