Black Coral
The state gem of Hawaii is black coral--but hold on to your hula hoop, because this jewel's no rock! Black coral actually comes from the skeletons of real live critters. Related to jellyfish, black coral is made up of thousands of tiny animals (we're talking the size of a pinhead!) called polyps. And when these pinheads want to stuff their faces, they shoot out poison-filled microscopic barbs to harpoon, kill and swallow plankton. (Incidentally, plankton is also the favorite food of the much larger, 70-foot, 142,000-pound blue whale!)
And for those of you who may have noticed that black coral isn't really black at all--the name refers to the color of their skeletons, which are built from tough protein. The living colonies are yellow, green and orange, as shown above. Pretty colorful, don't "hue" think?