{"id":175692,"date":"2024-11-15T16:05:23","date_gmt":"2024-11-15T16:05:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/11\/15\/the-worlds-largest-coral-was-discovered-in-the-south-pacific\/"},"modified":"2024-11-15T16:05:23","modified_gmt":"2024-11-15T16:05:23","slug":"the-worlds-largest-coral-was-discovered-in-the-south-pacific","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/11\/15\/the-worlds-largest-coral-was-discovered-in-the-south-pacific\/","title":{"rendered":"The world\u2019s largest coral was\u00a0discovered in the South Pacific"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><\/div> \r\n<br><br><div data-component=\"video-embed\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\n\n\n\n<p>Off the coast of the Solomon Islands lurks a centuries-old being that is so immense, it can be seen from space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Discovered in October by the National Geographic Society\u2019s Pristine Seas team, it is the <a href=\"https:\/\/news.nationalgeographic.org\/new-discovery-largest-coral-in-the-world-found-in-the-solomon-islands\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">world\u2019s largest standalone coral<\/a>. Coming in at roughly 34 meters wide, 32 meters long and 6 meters tall, the behemoth coral is longer than the average blue whale. It also dwarfs the world\u2019s next largest-known coral, a 22-meter-wide coral in American Samoa known as Big Momma.<\/p>\n\n\n<aside class=\"sn-conversion rich-text rich-text--with-sidebar\">\n<style><![CDATA[\n.email-conversion {\n  border: 1px solid #ffcccb;\n  color: white;\n  margin-top: 50px;\n  background-image: url(\"\/wp-content\/themes\/sciencenews\/client\/src\/images\/cta-module@2x.jpg\");\n  padding: 20px;\n  clear: both;\n}\n\n]]><\/style>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"rich-text embedded-conversion-content is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container\">\n<style><![CDATA[\n#dynamic-wrapper {\n  border: 1px solid #ffcccb;\n  background-image: url(\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sciencenews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/032624_sb_space-sugar_feat.jpg?w&#61;800&amp;ssl&#61;1\");\n  background-size: cover;\n  background-position: center center;\n  padding: 20px;\n  clear: both;\n}\n\n#dynamic-conversion {\n  padding: 20px;\n  background:rgba(0,0,0, 0.5);\n  color: white;\n}\n\n#dynamic-conversion h2 {\n  color: white;\n}\n\np.has-text-align-center a {\n  color: white !important;\n  text-decoration: none;\n  font-weight: bold;\n}\n\n]]><\/style>\n\n\n\n<div id=\"dynamic-wrapper\" class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<div id=\"dynamic-conversion\" class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\"><strong>Tell us about your Science News experience<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Help us improve by taking our 15-question reader survey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<\/aside>\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhile Big Momma looked like a huge scoop of ice cream plopped down on the reef, this newly discovered coral is as if the ice cream started to melt, spreading forever along the seafloor,\u201d said Molly Timmers, a marine ecologist on the Pristine Seas team, in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The immense specimen is a shoulder-blade coral \u2014 so named for the scapula-like ridges that comprise its body \u2014 called <em>Pavona clavus<\/em>. The team estimates that it was constructed by nearly a billion stony <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencenews.org\/article\/coral-reef-survival-fog-seaweed\">coral polyps<\/a>, tiny creatures that live together and build rigid skeletons made of calcium carbonate (<em>SN: 10\/30\/24<\/em>). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Such living structures provide crucial habitat for many marine species, said coral scientist Eric Brown of the Pristine Seas team, during a news conference. \u201cCoral reef ecosystems comprise only about 0.2 percent of the ocean\u2019s area, yet they contain over 25 percent of the marine species on the planet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>Serendipitously, underwater cinematographer Manu San F\u00e9lix came across the giant coral the night before the Pristine Seas team had planned to leave the location. \u201cIn the first second, I realized that I was looking at something unique,\u201d he said. \u201cI was saying to myself, \u2018no, no, it\u2019s not that big,\u2019 because I [didn\u2019t] want to [cause] too much excitement before it was measured.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After measuring the coral\u2019s record-breaking dimensions and reviewing studies of the species\u2019 growth rate, the team estimated that it was 300 to 500 years old. That longevity could be a boon to researchers, as the composition of a coral skeleton records information about its environmental conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While the newfound coral appears healthy, coral reefs around the world face many threats, from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencenews.org\/article\/gal%c3%a1pagos-waters-preview-future-corals\">ocean acidification<\/a> to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencenews.org\/article\/coral-reef-pollution-hurricane-maria-puerto-rico-ocean\">pollution<\/a> to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencenews.org\/article\/ocean-heat-records-2024-climate\">coral bleaching<\/a> (<em>SN: 1\/9\/15; SN: 9\/7\/22; SN: 4\/29\/24<\/em>). According to Brown, the discovery is a reminder that \u201cit\u2019s important for us to do whatever we can to protect these environments that are both small, yet mighty.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n<br>\r\n<br><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencenews.org\/article\/world-largest-coral-solomon-islands\">Source link <\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Off the coast of the Solomon Islands lurks a centuries-old being that is so immense, it can be seen from space. Discovered in October by the National Geographic Society\u2019s Pristine Seas team, it is the world\u2019s largest standalone coral. Coming in at roughly 34 meters wide, 32 meters long and 6 meters tall, the behemoth [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":175693,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sciencenews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/1114214-no_largest-coral_feat.jpg?fit=800%2C450&ssl=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[606],"tags":[5140,3493,2238,6967,137364,2306],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175692"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175692"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":175694,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175692\/revisions\/175694"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}