stony coral

American  

noun

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

---

stony coral British  

noun

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

---

Etymology

Origin of stony coral

First recorded in 1610–20

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

stony coral

To find out, the scientists injected Nematostella embryos with a gene from the stony coral Stylophora pistillata known for helping the animal concentrate the calcium that ultimately leads to skeleton formation.

From Science Daily ● Mar. 7, 2024

The reefs of the eastern tropical Pacific along the coasts of Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico and Panama are shallow, and most consist of Pocillopora, a type of stony coral that looks like cauliflower.

From Washington Post ● Feb. 25, 2023

“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

The stony coral surrounds and protects the soft body of the animal, and may either be a single cell, for one animal, or an aggregation of58 such cells, constituting a rounded or branching mass.

From The Chain of Life in Geological Time A Sketch of the Origin and Succession of Animals and Plants by Sir J. William Dawson