Coral is shaped like a branch, so many people think that coral is a plant. In fact, coral is an inferior animal. It belongs to coelenterates and has only two layers of germ layers. It has only one mouth, through which food enters and undigested residue is discharged. There are many tentacles around the mouth, which can catch food, and can also make water flow into the mouth and intestines through vibration to digest small creatures in the water. Corals like to live in shallow water areas with fast water flow, high temperature and relative cleanliness. Most corals can germinate and reproduce, but these buds are not separated, and finally they become an interconnected and common group, which is also the main reason why corals form trees. Each coral unit is called coral. The corals we usually see are the bones left by the rotten bodies of these corals. References:
/life _ seq/CMV _ life _ seq/seq _ setd/seq _ wsm/601/.htm Coral reefs are mainly composed of corals. Coral is a coelenterate in the ocean. It preys on tiny plankton in the ocean, absorbs calcium and carbon dioxide in seawater during its growth, and then secretes limestone to become its living shell. Each coral is only the size of a grain of rice. They live in groups, metabolize, grow and reproduce from generation to generation, and secrete limestone and stick together. These limestones are compacted and petrified to form islands and reefs, which are called coral reefs. Because of the adhesion of corals, a large number of corals are often attached to the bottom of many coral reefs. Coral is abiotic and belongs to Echinoderm. It also includes jellyfish, corals, soft corals, anemones and other animals. Coral is caused by many corals. Each coral has a hollow cylindrical body, the bottom is sealed, its intestinal cavity is connected with the surrounding corals, and the mouth in the center of the body is surrounded by tentacles. We usually divide corals into stony corals, octocorals and hydrozoans, which have different morphological characteristics. In addition to biological classification, we can also divide corals into two categories according to their ecological functions. Corals with algae (that is, zooxanthellae) are called reef-building corals, and those without algae are called non-reef-building corals. The basic structure of coral The body of coral consists of two layers of germ layers: the outer cell layer is called ectoderm; The cell layer inside is called endoderm. There is a thin mesothelium between endoderm and ectoderm, and there is no cell structure. This animal has no head and trunk, no nerve center, only a diffuse nervous system. When stimulated by the outside world, the whole animal body will react. Its lifestyle camp is free floating or fixed bottom habitat. Living corals live in the ocean. The origin of medicinal name Coral Pinyin Coral is the calcareous skeleton secreted by corals such as Coral Peach Coral. Efficacy of eyesight, calming the nerves. It is mainly used for treating blindness, convulsion, epilepsy and vomiting. Nature and taste belong to Tang herbal medicine: "sweet, flat and non-toxic." Administration and dosage: Wei Yan, 1-2 points. External use: grinding the final eye. Animal and plant resources are distributed in Taiwan Province Province and the southern coast. Location: Fujian, Taiwan Province Province and Guangdong Xisha Islands. The collection and storage of medicinal materials are carried out by hanging into the seabed with nets. Most of them are extracted from the residues of handicrafts and used for medicine. Coral grass processing method cleaning, air drying, grinding into fine powder. Textual research comes from "Tang Materia Medica" 1 Materia Medica Yi Yan: "Coral, first-class red oil color, thin vertical stripes, lovely; Another color, such as lead, has no vertical stripes, which is the bottom. Those who use red oil as medicine. (2) Compendium: "Coral grows on the seabed, and five or seven plants form a forest, which is called coral forest. Red is the best; There are also blacks, which is not good; The blue one is also good. People used to call those people Green Lan Zhanshi. "A complete identification of raw medicinal materials is like a small tree. They are usually broken into short rods, 2-3 cm long and 3-5 mm in diameter. There are branches or small protrusions, and there are many small holes around them, red. Hard as porcelain, not easy to break. No taste. It is best to be red, heavy, crisp and strong inside and outside. The chemical composition of traditional Chinese medicine contains calcium carbonate. The basic body shape of coral is cylindrical or disc-shaped, which is radially symmetrical, and the center of the body is the inner cavity. The intestine plays the role of digestion and absorption. There is a mouth above the lumen, and the gap between the lumen and the mouth is called the oral passage. There are tentacles around the mouth, stinging silk sacs in the tentacles, and stinging silk cells containing venom in the sacs, which are weapons for animals to defend and prey, which is why coelenterates are also called Echinotheca. Classification of corals in coelenterates There are about 9000 species of coelenterates, which are usually divided into 3 classes, namely, Hydrozoa, with about 2700 species; There are only more than 200 kinds of Scyphozoa; There are more than 6 100 species of corals. Coral is a general term for coelenterates. In daily life, what comes from seafood is called "coral", and what is "red" is called "red coral". Corals usually include soft corals, gorgonian corals, red corals, stony corals, horny corals, corals, light-colored corals and coral reefs. Some people mistakenly refer to the soft gill (Pennatula) and the colony anemone (Zoantharian) as "corals". The ecological characteristics of stony corals can be divided into reef-building corals according to their ecological environment and characteristics (Table 2). Non-reef-building corals (or deep-water stony corals)