An individual coral polyp or the skeleton secreted by a single coral polyp.
From Latin 'corallium' (coral) plus the suffix '-ite' which in geology denotes mineral or rock-like substances. The '-ite' suffix became standard in 19th-century mineralogy and paleontology to name fossils and mineral structures. A 'corallite' is thus a microscopic unit of coral structure.
A coral reef is literally billions of corallites stacked and cemented together—each one a tiny skeleton built by an individual polyp, and when you realize corals are actually colonies of microscopic animals each building their own house, you see reefs as underwater apartments built by countless tiny architects.
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