Coral

 

Good afternoon all, well it's Tuesday so it's indestructible stuff day and today it's coral.

Coral isn't indestructible you are saying because the coral polyps themselves are not they are sensitive to pollution and changes in sea temperature and some are now endangered.

When we think of the biggest thing ever created by living creatures we think The Great Wall of China or the tallest skyscraper but you would be wrong, it's the squishy little coral polyp.

You probably know that coral reefs are amazing underwater habitat home of all kinds of fish, sharks, turtles and octopuses. But what is coral?

It is actually made by small creatures called Coral Polyps which are tiny sea anemones. They build a shared layer of shell coral and live in it together. As polyps die new ones build more layers on top of the coral.

Over thousands of years this creates large indestructible and unmovable coral islands and reefs such as the Great Barrier Reef. Some of its coral may be up to 600,000[ years old.