What does «corales» mean in Spanish?
- A group of marine animals belonging to the class anthozoa. They are mostly colonial polyps; all form a calcareous exoskeleton. There are about 6000 living species of anthozoans and 8000 to 10000 fossil species, which, in addition to corals, include sea fans, sea whips, sea pens and sea anemones. The typical coral body, called a polyp, is cylindrical. At one end, a crown of short tentacles surrounds an oral disc, in which the slit-like mouth opens; in it is situated a ciliated groove that draws a stream of water for respiration. The throat, or pharynx, communicates the mouth with the gastrovascular cavity, which is divided into longitudinal communicating chambers by eight elongated membranes, called septa, joined by the outer edge to the body wall and by the inner edge to the pharynx.