Peters,-E.C.; Halas,-J.C.; McCarty,-H.B.J.  Calicoblastic 
	neoplasms in Acropora palmata , with a review of reports 
	on anomalies of growth and form in corals.  -NATL.-
	CANCER-INST. 1986. vol. 76, no. 5, pp. 895-912.

Colonies of the elkhorn coral (Acropora palmata ), possessing 
raised, whitened, irregularly shaped skeletal protuberances, 
were discovered at Carysfort Reef and Grecian Rocks, Key 
Largo National Marine Sanctuary, Key Largo, FL. These lesions 
exhibited relatively rapid growth and spread along the 
branches, as polyps were overlaid by coenosteal skeletal 
material. Histopathological examinations of the soft tissues 
surrounding and extending into the skeletal masses revealed 
proliferation of gastrovascular canals and associated 
calicoblastic epidermis, with loss of normal polyp structures 
and zooxanthellae. This condition appears to be a neoplasm of 
the coral, and it is proposed that it be classified 
"calicoblastic epithelioma". Several different types of 
abnormal skeletal deposition, possibly the result of 
neoplastic processes, have been reported to occur in stony 
corals and are here reviewed.