Hmmm?? Do corals die of old age???

Sure there is, its called marking corals in the wild just as they do animals, they could easily track age that way. And each new polyp is a totaly new life form so a coral really never can die bc it keeps producing
 
if you consider it that way.. then the coral's age is determined by each individual polyp and when one polyp dies then that "coral" dies but not the species see each morph is then a new species and each polyp a new coral
 
not true, its still the same coral just growing, that means that when u turn 5 and lose ur baby teeth ur now a new human
 
right i think i said that wrong lol what i ment is each polyp is a new growth not a new coral lol thats better
 
I am not sure what I told you. But if the question is do corals get old and die from old age? I don't think so. Can they die? Yes. Its been a long time since I studied this so I may be wrong, but as far as remember coral cells do not have a predetermined genetic experation. Having said that, we should also look at what is "a" coral. Most are colonial animals and each new polyp/growth could be thought of as a new coral. As the new growth shades and overtakes the old, the old parts die off. Do we still consider it all a one coral that has been growing? I think its more correct to say a single colony could live forever.

Now a real test is to look at solitary coral that is not a part of a colony and does not grow in a way that it could shade, smother or overtake itself and doesn't have close neighbours (scolymia or fungia come to mind) I don't have a factual answer to this, but if we could gauge the age. We might learn a bit more.
 
g i agree a colony won't die but if you consider each polyp a new form of life then in a way they do age
 
Last edited:

IF YOU HAD TO TAKE A REEFING EXAM, WOULD YOU PASS?

  • Yes!

    Votes: 32 45.7%
  • Not yet, but I have one that I want to buy in mind!

    Votes: 9 12.9%
  • No.

    Votes: 26 37.1%
  • Other (please explain).

    Votes: 3 4.3%
Back
Top