 Who makes Coral sand ??
Well Dane , It might be a surprise for you and many others but.... it is made!! Not by men of course but by PARROTFISH . Giant schools of parrot fish travel the oceans and they feed only on... life coraltissue... I supose you will see here and there bits of pieces chewed away from the reef leaving some "teethmarks " behind... They chew the coral with their mandebills ( like a parrot , that where the common name comes from) and the newly made coralsand leaves through their gills back to the ocean.
HOWEVER !! the finnest coral sands (less then 1 mm) which is completly round shaped is NOT CORALSAND ! it is a kind of Fossilized Diatom Algae , with a calcium layer on the outside.
And of course the whole process started already millions of years ago......
Picture of traveling " Parrots " and some others of the Family . Close up of the mandebill and a microscope image of a kind of Diatome Algae. |