Coral Reef Jigsaw Puzzle

Coral Reef at every size

Par is the time your score is measured against at that size. The rest is measured from the picture itself: how many pieces have a near-twin by colour once it is cut.

What the picture shows

A shallow reef seen from just above the floor. A big elkhorn coral spreads flat, mustard-yellow branches across the upper left, with dark red and orange sponges under it. Rounded brain corals, grooved like a maze, sit right of centre, at the right edge and in the bottom-left corner. Purple sea fans stand at both side edges, and thin sea rods rise in the lower corners. Blue tangs and three black-and-white striped sergeant majors swim among them. Pale sand shows in the lower middle, and blue-green water fills the top.

Solving Coral Reef

At 50 pieces about 3 pieces in 10 have a near-twin; the grooved corals, the elkhorn and the fish give most pieces a shape of their own. As the cut gets finer the reef floor slows it down: rubble, small corals and sponges in olive, tan and dull red look alike across the lower half. By 1000 pieces more than 8 in 10 have a near-twin, yet only about 1 in 10 is plain, mostly the open water at the top.

Start with the elkhorn, the only flat mustard branches on the board. Then the big brain coral right of centre and its neighbour at the right edge. Place the fish next, then the two purple fans and the sea rods in front of them. Lay the sand patches, fill the mixed rubble around them, and leave the blue-green water for last.

Coral Reef is the easiest ocean picture at 50 and 200 pieces, and second to Jellyfish Bloom at 100, 500 and 1000, level with Tide Pool at 1000. At 100 pieces about 5 pieces in 10 have a near-twin. Its reef floor repeats but rarely goes plain: at 1000 pieces Jellyfish Bloom has about twice as many plain pieces.

More ocean jigsaw puzzles

• Sea TurtleA green turtle rests on a reef of table corals, its shell crusted with barnacles.
• Clownfish AnemoneTwo clownfish shelter in a tan anemone beside a giant clam on a shallow reef.
• Jellyfish BloomOrange sea nettles and pale moon jellies in a blue-lit aquarium tank.
• Tide PoolA rock pool at low tide: starfish, anemones, mussels and kelp.