EXPLORING A CORAL REEF

Delving into food chains, adaptations and oddities, such as the palolo worm's peculiar habit of splitting into reproductive and non-reproductive halves, a closer look at the flora and fauna of the Florida Keys' ""fringing"" reef than was presented in Zim's Corals (1966). Unfortunately, the descriptions sometimes miss the mark (barnacles are animals that ""look like acorns"") and the suggested ""Experiments and Investigations"" are an insult to the intelligence (""How. . .Rivers Bring DDT Into the Sea"" is demonstrated by running water over a sponge impregnated with food coloring). The reef building process itself is better explained in Zim and in the Darlings' Coral Reefs (1963) which makes this exploration superfluous.