Modern corals appear
Scleractinian corals arrive abruptly, already fully formed, and rebuild the world's reefs.
- When
- Known to
- ± 3 million years
- Era
- Triassic, Mesozoic
Stony corals appear in the fossil record around 240 million years ago with a range of forms already comparable to living species — suggesting a considerably earlier origin from soft-bodied ancestors that left no skeleton. They replace the rugose and tabulate corals lost at the end of the Permian, and every coral reef since is built by their descendants.