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Kids & I found corals fairly well preserved in the red clay/dirt & I soaked I water & small amount of vinegar. After cleaning with toothbrushes -They came out sparkly-like a crystalline cover. These are a couple smaller sections. Red clay is difficult to remove. Tips on removing clay without removing the sparkle? Are these worth anything or bother donating to museum. Thank you

A new coral was found when geode hunting in NE Missouri. Likely Warsaw Formation, maybe Keokuk. In either case it is Mississippian. I am leaning towards an ID of Acrocyathus floriformis, a colonial rugosa known to occur in the Mississippian. But I prefer that coral experts chime in before I label it!!! @TqB Thanks Mike

Found in landscaping gravel at a gas station on a 6.5 hour drive to Lake Huron for some fossil hunting. This is probably Devonian. Instinct tells me horn coral but it looks rougher than that and lacks visible septa at the top. Bryozoan colony? That’s my next best guess. Thanks! Love you guys.

I've been working on a Petoskey Stone presentation for my rock and mineral club and have been collecting various colonial rugose corals that have been on sale on online and Etsy. I've been doing this because "Petoskey Stone" has become a popular name to use to sell fossilized coral and I want to be able to show our club how to differentiate Hexagonaria from other types of coral. I've gone through this forum and gleaned some data from @TqB and @FossilDAWG while they were helping out on IDs and was wondering if anyone could help me fill out this cheat sheet with more information (and correct me if I've gotten anything wrong) on how to differentiate some of the fossils I often see for sale (named correctly or not). Colonial Rugose Coral Identification Cheat Sheet Acrocyathus o Carboniferous o Ceroid o Central lens-shaped columella Actinocyathus o Carboniferous o Ceroid o Zone of bubbly dissepiments (londsdaleoid) Arachnopyllum o Silurian o Astreoid o Septa extend to axial column Hexagonaria o Devonian o Ceroid Pachyphyllum o Devonian o Astreoid Thanks for any help you can provide.

While fossil hunting in the streams I found this today,I thought maybe it was a broken piece colonial pipe,but some are telling me native Indian bead or chest plate bead,arrow heads are found there.....any thoughts?

Hi all, Could this be a badly worn rugose colonial coral? My guess, due to what looks like calyces, vs. more typical corallites. Does anyone recognize this? Length is 3cm. Found in Lake Michigan, IL, Wenlock epoch, Racine formation. TIA to all! This area has been a bit better protected and appears a tad less worn: