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The Builders of the Oceans – Part II: Corals from the Past to the Present (The Stone from the Sea)

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Marine Animal Forests

Abstract

At any scale, corals are live buildings. Their carbonate skeletons constitute three-dimensional frameworks allowing the delicate coral polyp to emerge from the sea bottom and populate vast areas of the ocean. The role that corals play in the oceans defies any attempt at simplification since it transcends the life span of the small polyp, geological time, and ecological space. Long after the polyps are gone, coral skeletons continue to play an important ecological role by hosting assemblages of disparate species utilizing the calcareous remains. However, the skeleton is one of the reasons coral has a privileged position in human culture. Coral has been regarded as mystic object and unique material of lapidary medical and apotropaic properties, this in great part due to the architecture and arrangement of the skeleton, growth morphologies, and color. Human history has been carved in chalk-white coral tombstones, on effigies, and on painted coral skeletons. Coral eyes of basaltic sentinels on Easter Island contemplate a plethora of coral artifacts scattered along the footpath of mankind: mortuary offerings, statues of pagan goddesses, helmets of Celtic warriors, military fortifications, and insular mosques shared the dream of the stone, when life seemed to depart from the mineral limbo, in the figure of the humble coral polyp. This chapter is the continuation of a personal journey into the coral forest of the world’s oceans (see chapter “The Builders of the Oceans – Part I: Coral Architecture from the Tropics to the Poles, from the Shallow to the Deep”). A selection of examples of human interactions with the “stone from the sea” will illustrate this complex and fascinating relationship with coral.

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Acknowledgements

Our thanks to Adriana Bruggeman, Piero d’Altan, Corrado Camera for English translations of various texts in Old Dutch, Italian, and Latin.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Energy, Environment and Water Research Center of The Cyprus Institute (CyI), P.O. Box 27456, CY-1645, Nicosia, Cyprus

    Carlos Jiménez

  2. Enalia Physis Environmental Research Centre, P.O. Box 26728, CY-1647, Nicosia, Cyprus

    Carlos Jiménez

  3. Instituto Español de Oceanografía, Centro Oceanográfico de Baleares, Moll de Ponent s/n, 07015, Palma de Mallorca, Spain

    Covadonga Orejas

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  1. Carlos Jiménez
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  2. Covadonga Orejas
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Correspondence to Carlos Jiménez .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Inst. Environmental Science & Technology Autonomous University of Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain

    Sergio Rossi

  2. LECOB / Ocean Observatory, CNRS / Pierre and Marie Curie Univ, Banyuls-sur-mer, France

    Lorenzo Bramanti

  3. Dept. Marine Biology & Oceanography, Institute of Marine Sciences, Barcelona, Spain

    Andrea Gori

  4. Spanish Institute of Oceanography, Balearic Oceanographic Centre, Palma de Mallorca, Spain

    Covadonga Orejas

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Jiménez, C., Orejas, C. (2017). The Builders of the Oceans – Part II: Corals from the Past to the Present (The Stone from the Sea). In: Rossi, S., Bramanti, L., Gori, A., Orejas , C. (eds) Marine Animal Forests. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17001-5_56-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17001-5_56-2

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  1. Latest

    The Builders of the Oceans – Part II: Corals from the Past to the Present (The Stone from the Sea)
    Published:
    08 March 2017

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17001-5_56-2

  2. Original

    The Builders of the Oceans – Part II: Corals from the Past to the Present (The Stone from the Sea)
    Published:
    02 January 2017

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17001-5_56-1

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