Coral

Taxonomy

Stony Coral

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Cnidaria
Class: Anthozoa
Order: Scleractinia
Family: ? Siderastreidae
Genus: ? Hindeastraea
Species: ? Hindeastraea discoidea
Author Citation ? White 1888

Geological Time Scale

Eon: Phanerozoic
Era: Mesozoic
Period: Cretaceous
Sub Period: None
Epoch: Late
International Age: Turonian

Stratigraphy

Eagle Ford Group
Arcadia Park Formation

Provenance

Collector: me
Acquired by: Field Collection

Dimensions

Length: 40 mm
Width: 38 mm
Height: 25 mm

Location

Post Oak Creek in Sherman
Grayson County
Texas
United States

• arcadia park
• post oak creek
• turonian
• cretaceous
• coral
• eagle ford
• sherman texas

Comments

Here is an unidentified semi-spherical colony of stony coral, collected in Post Oak Creek in Sherman, Texas, This is the largest colony that I have found at the site. The colonies range in size from 2.5 cm to 4 cm across. The coralites range from 4 mm to 6 mm across. This specimen has traces of the oyster, (probably Cameleolopha bellaplicata) that it grew on since the muddy Arcadia Park Formation did not provide a suitable hard ground. Other specimens of the coral also all grew on oysters. Traces of yellowish calcite-cemented sandstone clings to the coral.

 

The coral occurs in a yellowish calcite-cemented sandstone in the upper part of the Arcadia Park Formation that may be related to the Bells Sandstone in eastern Grayson County. Numerous Cameleolopha bellaplicata oysters and lesser amounts of small bivalves occur at the site. Numerous shark teeth and other vertebrate fossils also occur with the coral. An unidentified ramose bryozoan also grows on the oysters in the area.

 

Although unidentified, this coral looks a lot like Hindeastraea discoidea  (which occurs in the yellowish calcite-cemented sandstone layers in the upper part of the Arcadia Park Formation) as found in this reference: 

 

Perkins, Bob F. 1951. Hindeastraea discoidea White from the Eagle Ford Shale, Dallas County, Texas. Fondren Science Series 2: 1–11. 

 

Try this link for the pdf copy: https://sites.smu.edu/shulermuseum/publication_pdfs/fondren_sci/v2-Perkins1951a.pdf

 

Also here is a link to  Hindeastraea discoidea White, 1888, holotype (left) and paratype:

http://www.corallosphere.org/taxon/721.html

 

White CA. (1888). Hindeastraea, a new generic form of Cretaceous Astraeidae. Geological Magazine, New Series 3. 5: 362-364.

 

The original publication on Hindeastraea discoidea is:  link

 

Please let me know if you know what species this coral is.