In my post, Corals: Nature’s Greatest Builders, I wrote about how corals build reefs, but I didn’t write about how corals themselves grow.  Here is an explanation (like the previous post, I am focusing on hard corals):

Most corals start as a single polyp.  The polyp divides in two**, then those divide into four and…

After a year and a half reading about coral reefs and the creatures that inhabit them, the octopus has emerged as my favorite animal, hands down.  Here are my favorite things about octopuses:

They can squirt ink to distract and confuse predators allowing them to escape danger. They can change the color of…

Coral reefs are the largest structures on earth that are built by animals.  There are reefs that are more massive than the hover dam, the great wall of china and the great pyramids.  And what creatures build them?  You guessed it: corals.

To understand how they do it, it’s first important to understand what a…