stony coral

American  

noun

1. a true coral consisting of numerous anthozoan polyps embedded in the calcareous material that they secrete.

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stony coral British  

noun

1. any coral of the order Madreporaria, having a calcareous skeleton, aggregations of which form reefs and islands

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Etymology

Origin of stony coral

First recorded in 1610–20

Example Sentences

Across the Caribbean, international agencies, marine biologists and conservationists are responding to the environmental crisis, working to understand the mechanisms driving stony coral tissue loss disease and developing potential treatments.

From Science Daily • May 3, 2024

Best of all, this coral seems resistant to stony coral tissue loss disease.

From Washington Post • Aug. 16, 2022

“Their stony coral buddies don’t do a great job with producing sheets and trees,” Edmunds says.

From Science Magazine • Jul. 12, 2022

Just five deep-sea stony coral species create reefs like the one we found in August.

From Salon • Dec. 9, 2018

These walls were the express achievements of madrepores known by the names fire coral, finger coral, star coral, and stony coral.

From Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Walter, F. P.