A Coral Mixture

This rock fragment has been sitting out on the wash screen for a while. The spring rains have cleaned it off to reveal a number of corals. I thought this piece was maybe a fragment (6 cm by 5 cm) of a Silurian Alveolites coral.

One side of it has a colony of small Coenites reticulata branching corals. The small colony is about 5 cm by 3 cm in size. It is interesting in that the branches on the left of this picture are eroded out showing the whole fossil out of matrix.


This next picture shows a closer view of that branch.

Here is a side view of the layers of Alveolites.

On the other side of the coral fossil is another colony. It appears to be a Devonian Aulocystis coral. It is small and measures 2 cm in length and about 1 cm in width. It is like a series of little horns connected end to end.

This is a side view of the Aulocystis coral.

Here the Aulocystis colony can be seen from a distance. Above it is remanents of another coral maybe a larger Aulocystis. They are all growing on maybe the remains of an Alveolites coral.

This looks like some biodiversity going on in this specimen but I must have some identifications wrong since two different time period fossils could not be this close together. It does appear that there are at least 3 different coral fossils represented. I am guessing they will all turn out to be Silurian after some research.

Maybe A Devonian Favosites Coral

This is a series of photo of a possible Favosites colonial coral from the Devonian Period. I find it interesting in that has a lot of brown colored rock and then on off white component as well.

Specimen was found in Louisville Kentucky in a Devonian fossil layer.

Unknown Devonian Coral or Sponge

The following are some pictures of two pieces of rock that have 3 corals or sponges on them. They were found in the Devonian fossil area of Jefferson County, Kentucky. The fossils have been damaged by earth moving equipment and the rock was broken in two. One of the pictures shows the rock back together. It looks like they creatures existed together in three circular shapes.