[Coral-List] Coral immortality

[Douglas Fenner]

Each polyp goes on living (unless something kills it), connected to all the 
other polyps, a colony  is all one organism made of repeated polyp modules.  
Polyps are also a bit like individuals, when a colony breaks the fragment can 
live on as polyps are self-contained units.  Individual cells  are replaced I 
believe, as they are in some human tissues (especially skin and digestive 
system).    Doug
 



________________________________
From: Roy Ducote <scubadivingdoc at yahoo.com>
To: "Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov" <Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
Sent: Thu, March 17, 2011 2:12:05 AM
Subject: [Coral-List] Coral immortality

Question from a non- academic:

What is happening at the individual polyp level? Does each polyp go on living or 
is there regular polyp death and replacement so that the carbonate structure 
seems immortal but the individual biological organism is not? 


Sent from my iPhone
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