The coral polyp precipitates calcium carbonate from sea water and builds a castle wall around itself. In time it will bud, cloning itself into identical reef builders, all of which then build ...

But what exactly is coral bleaching, and why is this so damaging? We’ll explain everything you need to know, in a nutshell… Corals are tiny animals called a ‘polyps’, that typically live in large ...

Coral polyps, the reef's building blocks ... in 1997-98 was linked to a severe El Niño year and record-high sea-surface temperatures—in some spots 3°F higher than normal.

The man-of-war comprises four separate polyps. It gets its name from the uppermost polyp, a gas-filled bladder, or pneumatophore, which sits above the water and somewhat resembles an old warship ...

These “sand-encrusted” polyps form “small groups embedded and ... Francisca’s cluster anemones were found growing over sea sponges or “directly” on rocky cliffs, researchers said.