Characters: Colonies are encrusting to massive and frequently over one metre across. Corallites are cerioid. Septa have exsert teeth. Colonies have fleshy tissue over the skeleton, but this is seldom thick enough to mask underlying corallites.
Colour: Mottled browns and greens, commonly with brown walls and green oral discs.
Similar Species: Acanthastrea echinata, which has more widely spaced, fleshy, less cerioid corallites. See also A. bowerbanki, which usually has a central corallite and more angular peripheral corallites and A. hillae, which has larger and more fleshy corallites.
Habitat: Most reef environments.
Abundance: Uncommon.
Taxonomic References: Veron (2000a);
Identification Guides: Nishihira and Veron (1995); Pillay, Terashima, Venkatasami et al. (2002); Chan, Choi, McCorry et al. (2005); Turak and DeVantier (2011b);
