News

Film solves mystery of sleepwalking coral

By Susan Milius

- More than 2 years ago

Was coral ecologist John R. M. Chisholm losing his mind? Lumps of coral, with the ambulatory power of your average rock, somehow kept changing places in his aquarium overnight.

In false-color, infrared images (from top), a eunicid worm (yellow) writhes out from its rock and grasps a coral lump from 5 centimeters away, tenses its body, and in less than 2 seconds, yanks home the lump.