nature
During an October 2024 expedition, researchers in the Solomon Islands first mistook an enormous underwater shape for a sunken ship.
The world's largest known coral colony is correct — researchers initially mistook the enormous underwater shape for a sunken ship, but it turned out to be a single organism made of nearly a billion genetically identical coral polyps, measuring roughly 32 by 34 meters and estimated at about 300 years old.
It wasn't a pod of resting whales or a rock formation — those would look and behave very differently underwater, and the giveaway that this was actually living coral came once divers examined its texture and structure up close.
This colony is roughly three times larger than the previous record-holder and is reportedly large enough to be visible from space, while also serving as a rich habitat supporting countless other reef species around it.
nature
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