solitary corals

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solitary corals Those corals where a single corallite makes up the corallum. Shape and size range from an extremely low cone with an apical angle of 120° or more (patellate), through discoid (button-shaped), to horn-shaped and slender with an apical angle of 20° or less (ceratoid). A steep, conical shape with an apical angle of 40° is called ‘trochoid’; a subcircular, parallelsided corallite ‘cylindrical’; cylindrical corallites that bend crookedly in a worm-like manner are ‘scolecoid’; a corallite shaped like the toe of a slipper is ‘calceolid’. Other shapes are also described.

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