The Great Barrier Reef is located in Queensland, Australia.  The northern tip of Australia entered the tropics around 17 million years ago, meaning that, for the first time Australia had a tropical coastline.  It's temperatures changed to a  new range of life, which had previously been absent, including tropical reef building corals.  In addition, many species previously inhabiting the waters of the continental shelf had turned into new tropical species.

Sponges, fire corals, hydroids, anemones, and gorgonian exist in the coral reef.  Marine plants are the basic element of the food chain.  Without marine plants no marine animal would ever have existed.  There are two main types of marine plants: algae and sea grasses. While the algae are the simplest forms of plants on earth, the sea grasses are related to the most advanced.  Marine plants play some major roles on the reef; as microscopic food for the zooplankton or animal plankton, as symbiotic partners for the reef building corals, as reef and cay builders, holding the reef together and as both food and habitat for many reef animals.

Of the six species of turtle found on the Great Barrier Reef the green turtle is the most common.   Green turtle populations are known to nest on beaches in both the northern and southern regions of the reef.  They start nesting between October and March.  Females turtles always return to the beach where they were hatched to lay there own eggs and can lay of 50-150 eggs every 2-3 weeks throughout the nesting period.

There are many types of  species that live in the Great Barrier Reef.  There are three types of sharks, the white tip reef shark, the black tip reef shark, and the gray reef whaler.  There are morays, scorpion fishes, grouper, cod, trout, anthias, sweetlip, butterfly fish, angel fish, damsel fishes, wrasses, parrot fishes, gobies, surgeon fish, trigger fishes, dugong, manatees, barramundi, bream, mackerel, king prawns, zooxanthellae, sea slugs, and tapeworms.  The dangerous types of species are the stone fish, the box jellyfish, the jellyfish, the Pacific man-o'-war jellyfish, the fire jellyfish, the jimble jellyfish, and the little mauve stinger jellyfish.

Although the Great Barrier Reef formed 17 million years ago, the most significant period of coral growth and diversity began about 2 million years ago.  Since then glacial periods lasting thousands of years have lowered the sea level revealing the continental shelf many times. Each time this occurred the reef was exposed and died, leaving behind hills of limestone where living reef once lived.  As this continues to happen corals  reproduce and form new reefs with the cycle of life beginning again.  The Great Barrier Reef is so large it can be seen from the moon.

The coral reef is dying from coral bleaching.  Coral bleaching is caused by unusually hot water and coral dies if coral bleaching is too long lasting.   There are many theories, but the best theory is Global Warming.  Damaging of the reef is also caused by people.  People kill them by walking on them, dropping and dragging things over them, and breaking them off as souvenirs.  Pollution and fishing also affect the reef.  The Great Barrier Reef is a interesting wonder to learn about.