What exactly is coral? [Get the Answer at BYJU’S] (2024)

FAQs

What exactly is coral? [Get the Answer at BYJU’S]? ›

Coral is a class of colonial animal that is related to hydroids, jellyfish, and sea anemones. It is made up of thousands of tiny animals called polyps. Corals also provide habitat for a large variety of marine life, including various sponges, oysters, clams, crabs, sea stars, sea urchins, and many species of fish.

Corals are animals

And unlike plants, corals do not make their own food. Corals are in fact animals. The branch or mound that we often call “a coral” is actually made up of thousands of tiny animals called polyps. A coral polyp is an invertebrate that can be no bigger than a pinhead to up to a foot in diameter.

Coral reefs are massive structures made of limestone deposited by coral polyps. Often referred to as the “rainforests of the sea,” coral reefs support approximately 25 percent of all known marine species.

Explain that corals are a hard stony substance secreted by certain marine invertebrate animals that includes jellyfishes, corals, and sea anemones as an external skeleton, typically forming large reefs in warm oceans.

Corals are small marine animals that live in all oceans of the world. Some individual corals, called polyps, are colonial, which means they grow together in large groups called colonies. As they die, they leave behind their skeletons.

Coral is a class of colonial animal that is related to hydroids, jellyfish, and sea anemones. It is made up of thousands of tiny animals called polyps. Corals also provide habitat for a large variety of marine life, including various sponges, oysters, clams, crabs, sea stars, sea urchins, and many species of fish.

Providing food and shelter for sea creatures

Coral reefs are described as the tropical forests of the ocean, or as ocean oases. Providing shelter and spawning grounds to a wide range of ocean life, coral reefs serve an important role in the marine ecosystem.

Coral reefs are underwater structures made up of tiny animals called coral polyps. The animals live in big groups and stick to a hard surface. Together, they create a bright and colorful ecosystem that provides food and shelter for many marine animals, like turtles, fish, sharks, and more.

Most structures that we call "coral" are, in fact, made up of hundreds to thousands of tiny coral creatures called polyps. Each soft-bodied polyp—most no thicker than a nickel—secretes a hard outer skeleton of limestone (calcium carbonate) that attaches either to rock or the dead skeletons of other polyps.

Corals have a symbiotic relationship with microscopic algae called zooxanthellae that live in their tissues. These algae are the coral's primary food source and give them their color Stressed Coral: If stressed, algae leaves the coral.

Is coral alive or dead? ›

Corals are unique in that they can experience partial tissue death and still remain alive. As corals grow, they are exposed to disturbances like disease that can cause part of the colony to die although the rest of the colony continues to live.

The algae live within the coral polyps, using sunlight to make sugar for energy. This energy is transferred to the polyp, providing much needed nourishment. In turn, coral polyps provide the algae with carbon dioxide and a protective home. Corals also eat by catching tiny floating animals called zooplankton.

According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, coral is the “general name for the hard, calcareous skeleton excreted by certain marine polyps, c. 1300, from Old French coral (12c., Modern French corail), from Latin corallium, from Greek korallion”.

Corals are sea animals that stay in one place throughout their adult lives. Some types produce a skeleton, also called coral, that remains in place after they die. Corals can be very colorful underwater, but most types fade when they die or are removed from the water.

From vibrant schools of fish to our beloved sea turtles to sneaky reef sharks, so many species call coral reefs their home. Human populations also rely on coral reefs—they provide food, income, coastal protection, and other benefits to nearly a billion people.

Corals are small, marine animals that remain in one place throughout their adult lives and produce a hard skeleton made of calcium carbonate, or limestone. The skeletal material, which can be either internal or external, is also called coral.

The algae live within the coral polyps, using sunlight to make sugar for energy. This energy is transferred to the polyp, providing much needed nourishment. In turn, coral polyps provide the algae with carbon dioxide and a protective home. Corals also eat by catching tiny floating animals called zooplankton.

They are made of individual animals called polyps. The coenosarc connects individual polyps to one another and help make it a colonial animal. The structure we refer to as "coral" is actually a polyp.