Coral Archives

Below are some Images of coral that I've encountered In the archives I've visited for the Coral Archives project. The first two Images are of aragonite and calcite crystals that were formed abiotically (I.e., not through biological processes). These two minerals are the material that make up the skeletons of Scleractinian coral and Octocoral. Scleractinian coral almost always solely precipitate their skeletons as aragonite and Octocoral almost always precipitate their skeletons our of calcite or gorgonin, which Is a protein based material. The dark colored nodes on the Bamboo coral pictured below are made of gorgonin and the white bits are made of calcite.