Studies on the Structure and Formation of the Calcareous Skeleton of the Anthozoa

Abstract

ABSTRACT Milne Edwards and Haime, and the older authors on coral structure, regarded the calcareous skeleton of the Madreporaria as a calcified mesoderm. In 1881 Dr. A. von Heider, of Graz (11), described a layer of rounded cells underlying the corallum of Cladocora, and named them calicoblasts, since he judged from their position that they must be the coral-forming elements. In the following year. G. von Koch (17), in a memoir on the development of Astroides calycularis, confirmed the observation of von Heider, and further demonstrated the fact that the calicoblast layer is a product of the basal ectoderm.