Coral. Plant or animal?

Question

I have a funny feeling it is an animal.

Answer 1

Corals are invertebrates that are classified in the Phylum Cnidaria, Class Anthozoa. They create a calcium carbonate shell which becomes their home after rooting down either on a barren substrate or another coral. A number of the corals in tropical reefs have a symbiotic relationship with zooxanthellae, dinoflagellates which photosynthesize their food and live within the calcium carbonate encasement of the coral. This relationship is why many people ask the question about corals being plants - since the zooxanthellae can make its own food while corals are heterotrophic (must find food from another source; it cannot produce its own nourishment); any excess food product is used by the coral. In return, the dinoflagellates have a safe haven inside the coral and their stinging tentacles (they have cnidocytes which contain nematocysts - stinging cell organelles that are more commonly thought of when talking about jellyfish - also a member of the Cnidarian phylum).

Answer 2

Animal

Answer 3

Animal

Answer 4

For the most part, coral is an animal, or rather, millions of little animals. However, without algae (various species of single-celled plants) that grows on the skeletal structure of coral, the reef can't live. It's the algae that gives coral the fabulous colors, and the lack of algae that shows when a coral is dead, because it's stark white, like bleached bones in the desert.

Answer 5

. Corals look like plants, and they don't move around like a lot of animals, but they are animals. What we see as branches actually are whole colonies of coral animals. Each animal, called a polyp, has a hard skeleton and a soft body. This is attached to rock, or to the skeletons of dead polyps. What we sometimes see as flowers actually are the tentacles with which they capture food from the water. One of the main differences between plants and animals is that plants make their own food, whereas animals must eat plants or other animals.

Answer 6

Yes, the corals are animals, in the Phylum Cnidaria. They are somewhat related to jellyfish actually, and closer to sea anemones.

Basically, they are sea anemones that secrete a calcium carbonate shell around themselves that joins onto the shell produced by their neighbour. Eventually they can form huge reefs of limestone. Once the critter dies, their shell remains behind and new corals add onto the reef.

Answer 7

Animal, but soon it'll be extinct if the oceans temperature continues to rise due to global warming, which will destroy to coral barriers exposing the land to dangerous waves and the unforgiving ocean..

Answer 8

Coral itself is an animal, but what you see is nonlinving calcium. the little animal builds its home out of calcium, and it is the "house" that you see.

Answer 9

animal

Answer 10

You're correct! It's described as "substance formed of skeletons of a marine animal"*. If we don't start taking care of our environment, doing something to curb global warming, and make plans to protect and preserve the delicate ecological balance of nature, it will be one more animal lost to extinction, thanks to the wasteful habits of man. -RKO-