Hi Kids,
A coral Polyp. (Photo courtesy NOAA)
After following Dr. Frank and the Science Team’s Creep into the Deep research with NOAA-OE and seeing all the amazing photos including coral, I thought it’d be fun to test your knowledge about coral.
♥♥ True or False ♥♥
♥ Coral is a plant. True or False?
False: Coral polyps are tiny, soft-bodied organisms related to jellyfish and anemones.
♥ Corals only live in shallow water. True or False?
A deep-sea coral
False. Though many kinds of coral do live in shallower water, many others live deep in the sea.
♥ Some corals can live thousands of years. True or False?
True. Deep-sea corals are the old souls of the sea!
♥ Coral that lives in shallower water gets its coloration from algae. True or False?
A Hawaiian hogfish swims through the colorful coral reef
True. Colorful algae called Zooxanthellae (pronounced: zõ-zan-thell-ee) live in coral polyps. The algae creates the beautiful colors in reef building coral and provides much of the energy the coral needs. Zooxanthellae gets its energy from the sun.
♥ Some corals build reefs (hard rock-like structures). Some corals do not. True or False?
True. The reefs most people think of are built by each polyp. Each polyp in reef-building corals creates a protective limestone cup-like external skeleton. The polyps live in a colony. Coral colonies grow over hundreds and thousands of years and join with other colonies and become reefs. like a giant living rocky city Some reefs began over 50 million years. Cool!
Now you know a lot more about coral.
See you next time,
Dudley