6 Amazing Structures Built by Surprising Creatures
Published 15 Apr 2019, 14:34 BST
Opal coral reef off Cairns Great Barrier Reef, Australia.
The iconic white cliffs of Dover are made of chalk, a graveyard made of coccoliths—the calcite plates that sheath some single-celled organisms.
The roots of mangrove trees provide refuge for a dazzling array of marine organisms—and can even anchor the formation of small islands.
Termites build large mounds over their underground colonies to help provide ventilation and climate control.
As they eat algae, parrotfish grind up coral and poo out fine-grained sediment that builds up on beaches as sand.
Some of the oldest fossils of life on Earth are stromatolites: mineral structures formed by mats of photosynthetic microbes.