National Geographic News, Reporting Your World Daily

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Photo: Moonlight Triggers Mass Coral "Romance"


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Millions of corals in Australia's Great Barrier Reef, such as the Acropora millepora seen here, spawn simultaneously during one week each spring.

Scientists say they now have an answer to how the animals synchronize this spectacle: a moonlight-sensing gene.

Photograph courtesy of Jez Roff, Centre for Marine Studies, The University of Queensland/Science