☀️🪸 CORAL SPAWNING POLL🪸 ☀️ (Patreon)

Do you love the vibrant underwater worlds of warm-water reefs? Well,  thank a coral! These marine animals (they're not plants!) have perfectly-timed spawning events that happen across thousands of kilometers, lasting only a few minutes. What is your favorite fun fact below about coral procreation ?

If you haven’t seen our episode yet, watch, here.

Warming summer waters cue the right month for corals to spawn. (Shutterstock)

The light from a waning moon cues the right day. (Shutterstock)

The setting sun cues exactly the right time for the coral polyps to release their bundles of egg and sperm at the same time. The bundles then float up to the surface. (Josh Cassidy/KQED)

Each coral is made up of tiny individual animals called polyps. Each flower-shaped polyp has a soft body, a mouth and tentacles. They look like snowflakes, but these snowflakes are actually packets of eggs and sperm from coral polyps. (Josh Cassidy/KQED)