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Article: A lullaby for larvae.(RESEARCH NEWS)(birth of deep-sea corals in the Antarctic)
- Article from:
- Oceanus
- Article date:
- July 1, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Like many babies, these tiny offspring arrived last spring amid much fanfare and a little trepidation. Never before had scientists witnessed the birth of deep-sea Antarctic corals, which unlike like their tropical, shallower-water cousins, normally live and breed in the icy, sunless depths, 165 to 6,650 feet (50 to 2,000 meters) below the surface.
Their parents had been collected in nets and placed in saltwater tanks onboard the polar research vessel Laurence M. Gould. Day and night, in the ship's laboratory, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution biologist Rhian Waller watched with delight as dozens of the bright orange coral larvae crawled from the mouths of ...