The animals that form coral belong to the same animal group as the hydras, jellyfish, and sea anemones. Most individual coral animals, called polyps, are less than 1 inch in diameter, but a small percentage measure as much as 1 foot. A coral polyp has a cylinder-shaped body. At one end is a mouth surrounded by tiny tentacles. The other end attaches to the limestone skeletons of dead polyps.
Most coral polyps live together in colonies.
The stony corals attach themselves to each other with a flat sheet of tissue that connects to the middle of each body. Half of the coral polyp extends above the sheet and half below. Coral polyps build their limestone skeletons by taking calcium out of the seawater. As new polyps grow, the limestone formation becomes larger and larger. Coral polyps feed mainly on tiny swimming animals, such as the larvae of many kinds of shellfish.