|
Young World
Stories that corals tell
COMPILED BY ROHINI RAMAKRISHNAN
Photo: AP
Ancient: Telling about evolution.
Some of Earth’s most mysterious organisms — ancient corals that can be found 2,800 metres below the ocean’s surface-will be the subject of an ambitious new research programme, scientists have announced. It will be the first ocean-sc
ale study of the poorly understood deep-sea corals, whose growth patterns may fill large gaps in researchers’ knowledge of climate and the evolution of marine creatures. Recent studies have shown some living deep-sea corals to be up to 5,000 years old, making them a detailed historical archive of changing sea conditions and climates, researchers say. At the meeting scientists also revealed new results showing that some deep-sea corals repeatedly invaded the shallow waters that house the most familiar coral species. The findings represent the first known invasion from deep depths into shallow areas, revising many long-held assumptions about the evolution of marine organisms. Corals are often associated with shallow tropical seas, but two-thirds of the more than 5,000 known coral species are found in the cold, deep sea. There are 1,300 such coral species in the northeast Atlantic alone. The corals can occur as small colonies or form large reefs and giant mounds up to 300 metres high.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Young World
|
