What is a Coral? | Flashback

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What is a coral?
It's an animal which may live with a plant and makes a mineral-based skeleton
What is the taxonomic classification (phylum, class, subclass, order) of stony corals?
- phylum: cnidaria
- class: Anthozoa
- subclass: Zoantharia
- order: Scleractinia
What are Octocorallia?
-polyps with 8 fold symmetry
- includes sea pen, sea fan, sea pansy, and sea whip
- have an interior skeleton secreted by mesoglea and polyps with 8 tentacles and 8 mesentaries
- lack stony skeletons
What are Hexacorallia?
- having 6-fold symmetry in their body structure and only single rows of tentacles
- formed of individual soft polyps which in some live in colonies and can secrete a calcite skeleton
What is the difference between Octocorallia and Hexacorallia?
-Hexacorallia can secret calcium carbonate, have an external skeleton, and include reefbuilding corals
- Octocorals can secrete calcium carbonate, have internal skeletons, and do not build reefs
What are coral polyps?
Corals are small sea anemone-like polyps
How is their body organized (symmetry, mouth, etc)?
The individual organisms are radially symmetrical with tentacles surrounding a central mouth
How are the individual poyps connected to each other within the coral colony?
They form colonies of many genetically identical individuals that are interconnected by gastrovascular canals
What is a corallite?
The exoskeleton at the base of the polyp
What are nematocysts?
Stinging cells that the coral uses to trap prey. These cells are modified to capture and immobilize prey by injecting poison and firing very rapidly in response to contact.
What are hermatypic corals?
- produce reefs.
- found only in tropical regions
- have small symbiotc algae called zooxanthellae in their tissue
- zooxanthellae are critical for ref growth and development
What are ahermatypic corals?
- don't form reefs
- are distributed worldwide
- most dont have zooxanthellae
What is the difference between hermatypic and ahermatypic corals?
- hermatypic make reefs, are only found in tropical reigons, have zooxanthellae
- ahermatypic don't form reefs, live pretty much everywhere, and mostly don't have zooxanthellae
What are zooxanthellae? What are dinoflagellates?
- Zooxanthellae are single-celled algae
-provide the host with energy in the form of translocated reduced carbon compounds
- provide up to 90% of a coral’s energy requirements
- enables corals' success as reef-building organisms in tropical waters
- Dinoflagellates are flagellate protists that are photosynthetic
What is mutualistic symbiosis?
The way two organisms biologically interact where each individual derives a fitness benefit. Zooxanthellae get nutrients and protection while corals get oxygen, help w/ waste removal, and food