April 23, 2020 — Keri O’Neil almost missed the tiny grains expelled by the ridge cactus coral that she studies at the Florida Aquarium’s Center for Conservation.
The small pellets, measuring just one-eighth of an inch long, were easy to miss against the colorful backdrop of knobby ridges and creases of the unusual species.
“That first day, we weren’t even sure what we were looking at,” said O’Neil, a senior coral scientist at the aquarium.
What O’Neil and her colleagues had witnessed was a ridged cactus coral giving birth.
The scientists say it’s the first time this type of coral — which can look vaguely like a cross between a head of lettuce and a human brain — has reproduced naturally in a lab. The successful births offer hope for conservationists who are racing to save Florida’s endangered coral reefs.