Overview

Birth of a Coral Island

Nature of Coral

Flowers of the Reef

The Echinoderms

Amazing Defensive Weapon

Turtles of the Reef

Strange Behavior of Reef Crabs

A Deadly Killer

World's Largest Shellfish

Strange Oysters of the Reef

Rare fish of the Coral Seas

Unusual Vegetation

Birds in Millions

Angling Unsurpassed

nature of coral

What is the nature of the organism that is able to construct such a mighty r am part. For many years it was referred to as an "insect," but it is not an insect and is not even remotely related to one. Actually, the animals responsible for the formation of coral reefs are very lowly forms of life known as polyps, most of which are smaller than the head of a pin. The white coral which we see in museums is the limy skeleton only, and if we examine such a skeleton closely we will find a great number of pits or depressions on its surface. In each of these a fleshy little polyp lived, so that coral consists of a great community of polyps each playing its part in secreting lime to build the edifice.

Corals are almost infinite in their shape and variety. Some are fine with delicate branches, while others form huge, solid boulders, several tons in weight. Their colors are delicate rather than brilliant, with browns and greens predominating; but they serve to throw into relief the gaudy colors of much of the animal life associated with them.

All corals, however, do not possess the faculty of secreting lime, and the dominant forms of coral on many reefs are the soft or Alcyonarian corals. When submerged with their tentacles expanded they may be distinctly pleasing to the eye, but when exposed to the air at low tide they have few attractive features. Indeed, many are distinctly ugly, and lie, collapsed and folded, like great warty or cancerous outgrowths.

Interest in the Great Barrier Reef is not confined to the coral which abounds everywhere, for the forms of life associated with the coral have many amazing features. Marine animals, else-where small and inconspicuous, may grow to be giants of their race in the Barrier Reef. Others, which in more sober regions are drab and unattractive, may be seen here displayed in the most brilliant of colors. Many which have neither beauty of form nor attractive­ness of color have strange habits that probe the very depths of our credulity.