On occasion, it is of vital importance to consider how little we know about the spinning rock we all live on. Take coral ...

Many coral polyps (left) collectively grow into a coral structure by laying down calcium carbonate cups (right). How they grow together is a kind of biological packing problem. Shutterstock. The ...

Coral polyps are truly fascinating organisms. They belong to the same family as jellyfish and sea anemones, and though tiny—often no bigger than a grain of rice—they live in vast colonies.

The standalone structure, formed from a "complex network" of tiny coral polyps, has likely been growing for 300 years or more, the researchers said.

Tiny coral polyps form on coral colonies. Their numbers reach the thousands, but the Pristine Seas expedition team thinks there are about one billion polyps in this colony. Photograph by Manu San ...

This coral polyp lives as a loner and can even — very slowly — walk. Without legs. New video reveals details of its locomotion. B.M. Lewis et al/PLOS One 2025 () ...

The polyps that form the giant coral came from larvae that settled on the seafloor then multiplied over the centuries. An aerial view of the world’s largest coral colony in the Solomon Islands.

Corals, such as those under the coral center’s care, rescued as the disease advanced toward the southern end of the Keys, now hold the future in their gently waving polyps.

At 111 feet wide, 104 feet long, 18 feet high, and 600 feet around this stunning organism in the southwest Pacific Ocean is the world’s largest known coral that was discovered by accident. It is ...

Coral is comprised of tiny individual creatures called polyps, which form a connected hardened shell when living en masse in a colony. The average polyp grows to about a quarter of an inch. 4 ...

A coral colony is a group of coral polyps — small, soft invertebrate — that live and grow together. The "mega" colony is made up of nearly one billion polyps, according to National Geographic.

Polyps can clone themselves. If you break off a small piece of coral — containing a polyp or more — from a colony, it will ...