Wild Harris

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This coral has a hard skeleton into which it can retract to avoid predators. The white chalky shell is too tough for the teeth of sea urchins, and this animal is often the only thing still growing on the rocks where urchin grazing is particularly intense. Cup corals come in many brilliant fluorescent colours, and like the jewel anemones they closely resemble they have knobbed ends to their tentacles. Cup corals are found on hard surfaces all around the Harris coast.

Devonshire Cup Coral beside Seasquirts    (Photo: Paul Tyler)

A brightly coloured cup coral growig alongside a colony of light bulb sea squirts

Devonshire Cup Corals    (Photo: Paul Tyler)

Two cup corals feeding - you can see the hard skeleton on the left hand animal.

Although they are hard, they are also solitary so are unable to build coral reefs with

their dead skeletons.

by Paul Tyler

Lnk to Rocky Seabed Animals