Coral growth, retraction, defense, and regenerative strategies revealed by live microCT

Understanding how corals build and remodel their skeletons is key to explaining reef resilience, yet most insights come from static imaging. Using longitudinal live microCT, we tracked the same coral colonies over weeks to months at micrometer resolution. Coral skeleton formation is not a uniform accretion process but a dynamic integration of multiple programs, including vertical and horizontal patterned growth, previously undescribed defensive wall-building against competitors, exploratory edge behavior with reversible expansions and retractions, and skeletal regeneration favoring rapid, imprecise yet effective matrix expansion. Time-resolved imaging links colony-scale growth to microscale events, showing that all modes depend on balances between fusion of skeletal granules and layered matrix deposition, guided by tissue pre-patterning. Beyond corals, this framework generalizes to studying skeletal dynamics across diverse biomineralizing organisms.
, , # Coral growth, retraction, defense, and regenerative strategies revealed by live microCT

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.kh18932p4](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.kh18932p4)

## Description of the data and file structure

This dataset contains tomographic slices obtained using X-ray micro-computed tomography (microCT). The scanned samples were living coral specimens of *Pocillopora damicornis* and *Stylophora pistillata*.

MicroCT measurements were performed at the Laboratory of X-ray Micro and Nano Computed Tomography (CTlab), Central European Institute of Technology, Brno University of Technology (CEITEC BUT). The instrument used was a GE v|tome|x L240 system equipped with a 180 kV / 15 W maximum power nanofocus X-ray tube and a high-contrast flat-panel detector (dynamic 41|100, 4000 × 4000 pixels, pixel size 100 × 100 μm).

The experimental geometry was configured to achieve a voxel resolution of 6 μm for both species. This resolution allowed the entire coral nubbin to remain within the..., ,