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Sunday, April 26, 2020

Favosites hamiltoniae coral from the Moscow formation

It is unusual to find coral fossils at the Deep Springs Road quarry as the rock is a limy siltstone. One would not think a coral like Favosites hamiltoniae would like the muddier water. Perhaps it was washed in during a storm or records a less muddy interval that allowed the coral to thrive. In either case this is a cool specimen for the rarity of it being found at this location.  It appears to be a part of a larger, branching body and I only found a part of it. There is still quite a bit or rock covering the specimen and filling in the corallites.
 




This is a shot from the base of the specimen (on the right hand side of all the above pictures). Too much rock to see much detail but perhaps I will slab off the end and polish it to show the structure.

This specimen was found at a borrow pit on Deep Springs Road in Madison County, NY which exposes the Windom shale member of the Moscow formation (middle Devonian in age, Givetian stage.)

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