Myth vs Reality: What Corals Are

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 This short video addresses the misconception that corals are fossils.

Credits

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Produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute’s Office of Public Outreach in collaboration with the NASA Earth Observatory.

All images, illustrations, and videos courtesy of NASA except:
·       Great Barrier Reef underwater video footage courtesy of Andy Green at greenwaterproductions.net
·       Photo of reef fishers courtesy of Rebecca Weeks/Marine Photobank
·       Sea creature illustration copyright The National Library of Israel, Shapell Family Digitization Project _and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Department of Geography – Historic Cities Research Project
·       Photo of fish at a coral reef courtesy of Linda Wade/NOAA
·       Photo of a dead reef in American Samoa copyright Wolcott Henry 2005/Marine Photobank
·       Photo of a bleached reef courtesy of Armando Jenik 2009/Marine Photobank
·       Staghorn coral photo courtesy of William Harrigan/Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary/NOAA
·       Photo of coral in Perhentian Islands, Malaysia, courtesy of Nazir Amin
·       Mediterranean red coral photo courtesy of Lorenzo Bramanti/Marine Photobank
·       Gorgonian coral photo courtesy of Mohammed Al Momany/NOAA
·       Acropora table coral photo copyright Pete Faulkner, Mission:awareness/Marine Photobank 
·       Sewage pipe photo courtesy of Steve Spring/Marine Photobank
·       Photo of coral with black band disease courtesy of Sven Zea, Universidad Nacional de Colombia/Marine Photobank
·       Blast-fishing photo courtesy of Benjamin De Ridder/Marine Photobank
·       Photo of coral with yellow band disease courtesy of Craig Quirolo, Reef Relief/Marine Photobank
·       Before-and-after photos of bleached coral courtesy of Craig Quirolo, Reef Relief/Marine Photobank
·       Photo of bleached coral in the Galapagos Islands courtesy of David Jacobsen-Fried/Marine Photobank
·       Photo of dead coral reef in Taiwan courtesy of Konstantin Tkachenko/Marine Photobank
·       Bleached coral video footage courtesy of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
·       Thermometer and coral reef illustrations: Marc Lussier, STScI
 
Written by Vanessa Thomas
Designed by Marc Lussier 
Music courtesy of Associated Production Music

Transcript

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(SPEECH)
[MUSIC PLAYING]
 
(DESCRIPTION)
Text, Myth Versus Reality. On a chart, the left-hand side is labeled Myth and the right-hand side is labeled Reality. Above the Myth column, an illustration of sea monsters attacking a ship. Above the Reality column, a satellite image of a body of water. Text in the Myth column, Corals are fossilized plants.
 
Text in the Reality column, Corals are small animals related to jellyfish. Each coral animal is called a polyp, and thousands of polyps form a colony. Hard corals extract calcium from seawater and use it to create a hardened structure for protection and growth. These tiny skeletons accumulate over thousands of years to form coral reefs.