Imagine diving into a crystal-clear ocean and suddenly coming face-to-face with a bustling metropolis built not by humans, ...

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 ...

By Shanna Hanbury Wellington’s solitary coral, a species thought to be extinct for more than two decades, was rediscovered in 2024 near Tagus Cove in Ecuador’s Galápagos Islands, according to a recent ...

A new handheld microscope lets scientists monitor coral health in real time, underwater, without harming reefs.

The intricate, hidden processes that sustain coral life are being revealed through a new microscope developed by scientists ...

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

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 () ...

This shift is enough to stress the polyp/algae relationship and lead to bleaching in coral species around the world. However, while heat is the leading cause, it’s not the only one.

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.

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 ...

The mega coral, which is visible from space is believed to be about 300 years old. ... At 34 metres wide, the organism is made up of a network of coral polyps, tiny individual creatures.

Over 1 billion coral polyps make up the newly discovered colony, according to National Geographic. Most corals are dome-shaped, but this newly discovered mass is remarkably flat, according to ...