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

The study "Microorganisms uniquely capture and predict stony coral tissue loss disease and hurricane disturbance impacts on US Virgin Islands reefs," published in Environmental Microbiology explains the impacts coral reef disturbances have on microbes.

From Science Daily

To date, studies of storm impacts have largely focused on scleractinian or stony corals.

From Science Daily

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

They are made up of stony corals, which are hard skeletons formed by thousands of individual living coral polyps that symbiotically host algae.

From Seattle Times