It looks like an anenome or a mushroom/ricordia of some sort. Those would be my guesses.
I saw a thread on something like that a while back on rc. People had abnormal growths on some of their stony corals for no apparent reason. Just as quickly as it started it would go away. Reminds me of a coral tumor.
Me thinks Tracy was just making a joke.why would you throw it away? do you think it could spread?
Hyperplasia (hypertrophy, gigantism, corallite distortion) is characterized by accelerated growth through a rapid increase in the number of cells (non-neoplastic proliferation), but otherwise retain their typical "normal" cellular structures (fig.4.18). Patterns of ridges and valleys (in brain corals) or circular polyps (star corals) in affected regions are pronounced (largely increased cell sizes), and protrude above the colony surface. Depending on the species, the raised spherical masses can project up to 4.5cm above the surface of the colony. Observations on Magnetic Island (GBR) found that 18-24% of populations of Platygyra pini and P.sinensis are affected.4.82a
In some cases it was found that polyp hypertrophy characterized by gall formation is the result of a parasite-induced proliferation within the tissues. These lesions for example on Madrepora spp. develop when the crustacean Petrarca madreporae, an obligate endoparasite of corals, invades a normal coral polyp as a larva and matures within the polyp. It results in the formation of an enlarged (hypertrophied) corallite with abnormal septae (see Chapter V). The scleractinian corals P.lobata, P.lutea, Manicina areolata, and Montastraea cavernosa can detect invasion by endolithic fungi and respond by surrounding the site of fungal penetration within a layer of thickened calcium carbonate produced by hypertrophied calicoblasts. Skeletal anomalies caused by tumors affect 16 Caribbean and 24 Indo-Pacific Scleractinian species, 1 Caribbean hydrozoan, and at least 5 species of Caribbean gorgonians.4.82b
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