Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Syringopora sp. coral from the Hungry Hollow Mbr. at Arkona

Syringopora is a small, narrow tabulate coral that grows in loose colonies with the individual corallites separated by a 5-10mm in most cases. Here is a specimen that I found last fall at Arkona that comes from the Hungry Hollow mbr. of the Widder formation. Note the close spacing of the corallites  to one another which reminds me of the growth pattern of some rugose corals, such as Eridophyllum subcaespitosum. The former coral's coralites have a much wider diameter than those of Syringopora.
These are views of the rock from different angles which show how the individual corallites grew upwards as new mud and debris piled up around them.


One could make the case that these are Aulocystis sp. corals but I don't think they are. Aulocystis has a more tapered look and they bud off regularly without much vertical growth.

These are views of the bottom of the piece. The coral here seems to parallel the bottom of the rock which either indicates that it started to grow vertically and then was knocked over or grew horizontally until the bottom sediments started to pile up.


No comments:

Post a Comment