Photo of the day

This labyrinthine, cerebral-looking coral can be found across the ocean floor in both the warm recesses of shallow reefs and the dark depths 100 feet under the tropical sea. As the “big thinkers” of the deep blue, brain corals (Colpophyllia natans) can live for up to 900 years and grow to an impressive six feet tall. Their distinctive grooves, ridges, and valleys form brain-like domes and boulders with a truly unique structure, the result of genetically identical polyps, the invertebrates that make up coral reefs.