Archive for June 2018

June 3rd, 2018 by Dr. Hannah Sivak

Corals are among the most amazing and beautiful and complex living beings. What we see is an exoskeleton made of calcium carbonate that has been formed slowly by the whole colony, made of identical individual polyps. These polyps are marine invertebrates of the phylum Cnidaria; in this phylum, members of the class Anthozoa are the reef builders, but you may be more familiar with other members of the phylum that include the nasty, if beautiful, jellyfishes. Corals are even more complicated than “just” the colony of tiny polyps making a beautiful exoskeleton that used to end up as beautiful earrings and necklaces (this practice is not heavily regulated). How do…