The classification of corals has been discussed for millennia, owing to having similarities to both plants and animals. Aristotle's pupil Theophrastus described the red coral, korallion, in his book on stones, implying it was a … See more

Feeding
Polyps feed on a variety of small organisms, from microscopic zooplankton to small fish. The polyp's tentacles immobilize or kill … See more

Corals can be both gonochoristic (unisexual) and hermaphroditic, each of which can reproduce sexually and asexually. … See more

Reef-building corals are well-studied holobionts that include the coral itself together with its symbiont zooxanthellae (photosynthetic dinoflagellates), as well as its associated … See more

The delineation of coral species is challenging as hypotheses based on morphological traits contradict hypotheses formed via molecular tree-based processes. As of … See more

For most of their life corals are sessile animals of colonies of genetically identical polyps. Each polyp varies from millimeters to centimeters in diameter, and colonies can be formed from many millions of individual polyps. Stony coral, also known as hard coral, … See more

Corals are one of the more common examples of an animal host whose symbiosis with microalgae can turn to dysbiosis, and is visibly detected as bleaching. Coral microbiomes have been examined in a variety of studies, which demonstrate how … See more