WE ARE FANIMALY!

WE ARE FANIMALY!!!

We have a whole new We Are Fanimaly for you today! It’s been a while since we did one and we’re super excited to talk about these animal relatives! Come meet these ocean dwelling relatives!

• Coral and Jellies (often called jellyfish) are members of the cnidarian (the c is silent) family.
• Corals are invertebrates (they lack a backbone).
• Corals are mostly found in warm tropical ocean waters.
• Corals live in a colony that is made of calcium carbonate. Each coral has it’s own skeleton that helps make one large coral.
• The coral animal itself has a soft body that protects itself with that hard outer skeleton.
• Coral come in all shapes, sizes and colors.
• Corals build large reefs that then become a habitat for many other ocean animals, including fish, octopuses and sea turtles.
• Corals have tiny stingy cells called nematocytes.
• Jellies are also invertebrates.
• Jellies are found in oceans around the earth.
• Jellies are carnivores.
• Jellies have thousands of stinging cells (also called nematocytes) along their tentacles.
• A jellie’s tentacles can be very short or very long.
• Jellies have no left or right side, only a top (called the bell) and a bottom.
• Jellies have no brain or blood.

Wow! Who knew that corals and jellies were related? We sure will be wary around both creatures and those stinging cells! Jellies are one of the leatherback sea turtles favorite food! And without corals and their reefs, many ocean creatures would not have a habitat to live in! These two creatures are just another reason we should help protect our oceans!