Tibetan Coral?

[tonggao]

Well, even though this is a coral question, I am not sure if this is related to what we are talking here, therefore the question. Since I am going to Tibet in one week, I was reading a little about it. One thing I noticed is that Tibetans make a lot of coral jewels. Are these corals totally different from what we are talking about here? I am thinking maybe they are ancient fossils of real corals, but not sure.

 

[sfsuphysics]

Well the coral used in "coral jewelry" is an actual coral, although IIRC it's a particular type of coral (that is pretty close to being gone IIRC)

Here's a wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precious_coral

 

[tonggao]

Thanks Mike for the link. It is very interesting to learn that there are corals living 1500m (4500ft) below surface, and they are so precious that people make jewelry out of them. I guess they are not phytosynthetic, and wonder what they eat that make them so intensely red. For once a dead bone looks more bright than live flesh.