1) Are corals plants or animals?
Coral: Plant or Animal?
Coral is a generic term for a colony of polyps.
Corals typically live in compact colonies of many identical individual polyps.
Polyps belong to: Animal kingdom Animalia
Phylum Echinostris Cnidaria
Corals Anthozoa
Soft corals
Soft coral: sway back and forth in the water
Hard coral
Hard coral (stony coral): rigid
Hard coral polyps can retract into their hard shells to protect themselves.
Coral is made of polyps and live in shells.
The coral uses the shells to protect themselves from predators and other danger
(3) How do corals protect themselves?
How do corals defend themselves？
Most polyps have more than eight tentacles,
These tentacles have prickly cells that secrete venom.
Corals have a set of tentacles with stinging nematocysts.
When plankton is detected, they lash out, spear it and inject the poison into them.
6) The world's largest coral reef
- The Great Barrier Reef of Belize
Belize barrier reef
More than 180 miles long
It's over 180 miles long