Coral skeleton construction; a physiochemically dominated process

• Published in: Palaios Vol. 1; no. 2; pp. 152 - 157
• Main Author: Constantz, Brent R
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Tulsa, OK Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists 01-04-1986
• Subjects: Anthozoa; Aragonite; Bone mineralization; Calcium; Cements; Cnidaria; Coelenterata; Coral reefs; Corals; Crystal growth; Crystals; Earth sciences; Earth, ocean, space; Exact sciences and technology; geochemistry; Invertebrata; invertebrate; mineral composition; mineralization; Organic foods; Paleontology; Petrology of sedimentary rocks except quaternary rocks; Phanerozoic; Research Letters; Sedimentary rocks; Skeleton; skeletons; Crystal growth; Aragonite; Diagenesis; Corals; Ultrastructure
• ISSN: 0883-1351; 1938-5323
• DOI: 10.2307/3514508

Stony corals calcify by nucleation and growth of aragonite fibers on seed nuclei packets produced by the coral. Aragonite fibers arrange into polycrystalline bundles that lift the coral upward during fiber growth, entrapping fibrils and tissue sheets, from the undersurface of the calicoblastic epithelium, between growing crystals. The morphology and arrangement of the aragonite fibers are controlled by inorganic kinetic factors of crystal growth, akin to inorganically precipitated murine cements. Corals selectively plane-off extending fibers on completed structures and stop fiber growth. Similar skeletal construction and maintenance mechanisms are found in other phyla.