Corrosion of corals catches meat-eating jellyfish

Scientists first went back to coral calyculariscoral astroides to catch and eat lilac jellyfish.

Coral catches lilac jellyfish.

Small orange polyps gather in clusters west of the Mediterranean Sea. The polyps connect with each other, acting like an organism with many small mouths.

When jellyfish follow the ocean currents to coral reefs, they can get caught in the exposed rocks. After that, the polyps will catch the dome-shaped body of the jellyfish, while others will quickly devour the mouthpieces.

The surrounding coral clusters can be combined to eat other parts of the jellyfish.

Synchronizing activities helps small polyps catch and eat large prey.

Scientists are not sure if corals exchange information with each other to attack or the coordination takes place without any clear signal between the coral clusters.