Individual specimens of the coral Desmophyllum dianthus live for decades to hundreds of years and have visible banding patterns. The vertical growth axis of the coral runs from bottom (oldest) to the top (youngest) in this section cut through a coral specimen, and you can clearly see this banding.
Scientists are not yet sure whether the bands are deposited annually in D. dianthus, but they can still make multiple geochemical analyses along the growth axis to create a high-resolution record of conditions in the ocean in the past. (Photo by Jess Adkins, California Institute of Technology, and Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)[back]
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