Brain Coral

Fascinating facts about the Brain Coral

• Brain Coral is one of the most thermally tolerant corals on Caribbean reefs and is often the last to bleach during heat events, making it critical to reef survival.
• The grooves are not channels — they are the mouths of the polyps. At night, polyps extend tiny tentacles from each groove to feed on passing plankton.
• Scientists have used cores drilled from brain coral skeletons like tree rings, reading centuries of climate data from growth bands — effectively a natural climate record.

At a glance

About the Brain Coral

Brain Coral is one of the most recognisable corals on Caribbean reefs, its surface forming deep grooves and ridges that look uncannily like a human brain. Despite its alien appearance, each ridge is a row of tiny polyps — individual animals living in a coordinated colony that can survive for nearly a millennium.

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