thorny coral

Thorny coral refers to invertebrate marine organisms belonging to the class Anthozoa, characterized by stony, horny, or leathery skeletons. These animals are also known as black coral. The basic body structure of a coral animal is a polyp, a hollow cylinder with a mouth and tentacles at one end. These tentacles are equipped with stinging cells to capture prey.12

Corals reproduce both sexually, releasing eggs and sperm into the water, and asexually through budding, where new polyps grow from existing ones. This budding process leads to the formation of colonies, with older polyps dying off but leaving their skeletons behind. Thorny corals, specifically, are whiplike, featherlike, or treelike in form and are found in various regions, including the Mediterranean Sea and the West Indies.1