Caption Close-up view on the individual polyps that constitute a colony of stony coral. Each polyp is just a few millimeters across and has 12 tentacles around its mouth.

Many species of coral grow in colonies, with hundreds or thousands of polyps acting as a single organism. They work together to build a hard skeleton that grows over time as the colony multiplies.

A new study led by University of Washington researchers borrowed image-analysis methods from engineering to spot the minute movements of a stony coral. The team published these results April 8 in ...

In stony corals, individual polyps release nutrients for the colony, presumably feeding the genetically less well adapted polyps. Thus, the colony's genetically "weaker" specimens can survive.

The PhD student’s research focuses on the polyp bailout response that he observed in stony corals. “The individual polyps would detach from the coral colony in response to a temperature rise ...

Although the polyps appear to weather temporary changes in pH rather well, ocean acidification still presents a major threat to coral reef ecosystems, the group reports in this week's ...

This coral polyp lives as a loner and can even — very slowly — walk. Without legs. New video reveals details of its locomotion. B.M. Lewis et al/PLOS One 2025 (CC-BY 4.0) By Susan Milius ...

Many corals develop a symbiotic relationship with algae. The algae provide oxygen and energy to the coral and aid the polyp in calcification through secretion of calcium carbonate.