We had a nice conversation with the lady at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute! We learned that when you look at the rings inside a stump of a tree, the rings show how old the tree is. Another cool fact was that one centimeter of growth of coral is one year of growth for the coral. The oldest piece of coral she’s seen was 1200 years old! Finding nemo was actually pretty accurate on their facts. Corals also can die naturally when the water level rises and the coral cannot get enough light because the surface is too high. They take cylindrical pieces of coral to sample, and then fill them with cement so animals don’t swim into them. We loved learning about her job and about different types of corals!
- When you look at the stump of a tree, the rings inside show how old the tree is
- 1 centimeter of growth for coral = 1 year of growth
- “Finding Nemo” was surprisingly accurate
- Coral can die when the water rises and it doesn’t get enough light because it is too far from the surface
- They take cylindrical pieces of coral to look at
- They fill the hole with cement so animals don’t swim into them.
By: Emily Finkbeiner and Dalia Nedzinskas
May 22, 2019 at 8:21 pm
So are coral considered plants or animals? What a fascinating subject!
May 22, 2019 at 8:46 pm
They are considered animals!
May 22, 2019 at 9:37 pm
Yes, they are made of very small polyps joint together. Another thing is plants make their own food, but coral does not, as it is an animal.
May 22, 2019 at 9:06 pm
Where is the Oceanographic Institute located?
May 22, 2019 at 9:48 pm
Florida!
May 23, 2019 at 10:54 pm
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute is actually in Massachusetts!