black coral

Meaning

Noun

• Any of various tropical corals of the family Antipathidae (family).

Related

Broader meaning words

• deep coral
• coral

Origin

• From the black colouration of their skeleton of the coral, made of chitin; unlike shallow-water corals which use calcium carbonate to build white skeletons, evident during coral bleaching events which reveal the colour of the skeletons, due to the transparent corals expelling their colourful algae symbiants.