Ocean field note
Tiny builders
The Coral City
A giant coral reef is built slowly over hundreds of years by animals smaller than your fingertip.
Let's look closer
Who builds something so big out of something so small?
ach coral polyp is a tiny, soft-bodied animal that pulls minerals from the seawater to build itself a hard little cup of stone to live inside. When a polyp dies, its stony cup stays behind, and new polyps grow and build directly on top of the old skeletons left there. Generation after generation builds on top of the last this way, until thousands upon thousands of tiny cups grow into a reef large enough for countless fish to call home.
Look for this
Explorer clue
In clear shallow water, look for the many colors and shapes among coral, each shape is home to a different community of sea creatures.
Your turn to wonder
Curiosity question
What tiny thing could you build a little at a time that might grow into something huge?
Keep wandering
