black coral

English

Etymology

From the black colouration of their skeletons of the corals, made of chitin; unlike shallow-water corals which use calcium carbonate to build white skeletons, evident during coral bleaching events which reveal the colour of the skeletons, due to the transparent corals expelling their colourful algae symbionts.

Noun

black coral (plural black corals)

1. Any of various tropical corals of the family Antipathidae.

Hypernyms

• deep coral
• coral

Related terms

• coral
• coral bleaching
• coralporosis
• deep coral
• hard coral
• octocoral
• soft coral