Corals Dance Too: Underwater Microscope Catches Dancing Corals In Their Habitat

Dancing is an almost natural response humans have when they listen to music. If you've ever seen "August Rush," you know that music is in the air - and apparently, it's in the sea as well.

#Science - It is not just in Disney movies: Coral shown to dance in real life using high... https://t.co/PkxwdZQkAP pic.twitter.com/4ZoHxZj4lz

— Discover News (@Discover_News_) July 12, 2016

Researchers from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography's Jaffe Laboratory for Underwater Imaging at the University of California, San Diego, created a new imaging system, known as the Benthic Underwater Microscope, and it is used to capture images of small oceanic organisms.

The team used the system to study coral polyps and single-celled algae that live inside coral in both the Red Sea and Maui. Co-lead author Andrew Mullen, a student at Scripps said in a statement, "The underwater microscope is the first instrument to image the seafloor at such small scales. The system is capable of seeing features as small as single cells underwater."

Using the BUM, National Geographic noted that the team witnessed a side to corals that have never been documented before. Setting the microscope up in a reef, they saw that neighboring polyps would dance slightly, waving, as polyps do to move. They also periodically lean across each other and press their mouths together. They call this "polyp kissing" and they suspect that the corals are exchanging food or nutrients.

In the short time that the footages were examined, The Los Angeles Times noted that the microscope managed to unmask valuable information on the complexities of coral life, including their competition for territory on the sea floor.

Another observation from the scientists is that competing species also fight each other - the stronger one sends out filaments - thin, worm-like fingers that act as its gut - and coats the tissue of the weaker one, basically digesting its neighbor.

The microscope can allow scientists to conduct their research without disturbing their subjects, so the conditions, including the temperature and acidity of the water and activity of nearby ocean organisms, can have a better influence on coral behavior, which gives more realistic environments for scientists to study.