I was lucky to snorkel in two different regions of the Great Barrier Reef, which is home to so many different types of animals and plants. Some animals that live in the reef are those you see in the wonderful movies "Finding Nemo" and "Finding Dory". There are many different fish like clownfish (like Marlin and Nemo) and pacific blue tang (like Dory). There are also sea turtles (like Squirt) and even sharks (like Bruce).
All of the fascinating animals I have mentioned live in the Great Barrier Reef but, more specifically, most of the fish live within the coral of the reef. You might think coral is a plant since it stays in one place or maybe even is like a rock because of how it looks, but guess what? Coral is an animal! Coral is made up of thousands, sometimes even millions of tiny animals called "polyps." Polyps are invertebrates, which means they have no backbone. Polyps are cool because they all group together to form one giant coral. They are able to do this because they make a hard exoskeleton, which means their skeleton is on the outside (as opposed to us humans which have our skeletons inside our body!). They make their skeleton from a substance in the water called "calcium carbonate". They make these skeletons in order to protect their body, just like our skin and bones protect our bodies.
