Is this Coral?

[Righteous]

This piece has caught my eye. All I know is that it was found in central alabama but no other details as of yet.  This looks like coral, can someone put a name with it?

[Righteous]

[Righteous]

think I found it  Lithostrotionella sp.

[FossilNerd]

I’d say it is definitely a colonial rugose coral, and looks a lot like Lithostrotionella sp. as you mentioned, but coral can be hard to accurately identify without knowing what formation they come from, or at least what age of rock. They all look so much alike. 
 

I’ll do some digging to try and confirm or deny Lithostrotionella sp. I wonder if @BLT would have an idea? She relocated to Alabama a few months back, but I’m not sure how familiar she is with the coral around there yet. 

[Righteous]

This was found in a cow pasture of all places in Blount county Alabama. I do know a lot of that pasture land is at the base of the Appalachian mountains

[Jackson g]

I would put bets on a Lithostrotionella sp. coral as well. Sure looks like colonial paleozoic rugose to me. Good preservation with the corralites and septa. Looks like it could be a few options, depending where your precisely situated.

[doushantuo]

[FossilNerd]

2 hours ago, Righteous said:

This was found in a cow pasture of all places in Blount county Alabama. I do know a lot of that pasture land is at the base of the Appalachian mountains

That actually helps.

 

Here is what I found...

 

From what I understand in the below paper, the genus Lithostrotionella was actually poorly described and became sort of catch all for any rugose coral colony that resembled it. This paper reclassifies many species that were previously classified as Lithostrotionella into different genus. The good news is that it lists some of these reclassified species as being found in the Tuscumbia Limestone. Another fun fact is that Tuscumbia Limestone can be found in Blount County Alabama. Now we are getting somewhere! 

 

The reclassified genus that is listed as being found in the Tuscumbia Limestone is Acrocyathus. This paper deserves further reading, and the diagnostic description would need to be compared with your specimen to be sure, but based upon the info provided in the paper, and your provided pictures, I would tentatively label yours as Acrocyathus sp.

 

Below is a link to the referenced paper and a link to the USGS page listing Tuscumbia Limestone as being in Blount County. 

 

 

PDF LINK

Sando, William Ja.Sper. Revision of Lithostrotionella (Coelenterata, Rugosa) from the Carboniferous and Permian. (Geological survey professional paper ; 124 7) "A revision of colonial rugose corals based on restudy of Hayasaka's North American species and the literature on other spedes referred to Lithostrotionella."

 

 

LINK

USGS- Geological Units of Blount County, Alabama

 

 

 

 

[FossilNerd]

@doushantuo

 

You beat me to it! 

[doushantuo]

yes and no:same author,different publications.

38 MB

some of you may like:

 

Fedorowski, J. Considerations on most Rugosa and the Dividocorallia from de Groot’s (1963) collection.
Scripta Geologica, 127: 71-311, 1 fig., 54 pls.; Leiden, May 2004

a (very)good review of lonsdaleoid (and per extensem,lithostrotionellid corals,IHMO

 

the starting point:

(26 MB)

Rugose corals from the carboniferous of Northern Palencia (Spain)
G. E. de Groot

(Leidse Geol.Meded.)

***Rotiphyllum, Bradyphyllum, Amplexocarinia, Polycoelia, Sochkineophyllum, Ufimia, Cyathaxonia, Lophophyllidiurn, Stereostylus, Zaphrentites, Duplophyllum?, Euryphyllum, Lithostrotion, Arachnastraea, Clisiophyllum, Dibunophyllum, Koninckophyllum, Corwenia, Pseudozaphrentoides, Bothrophyllum, Lonsdaleia, Lithostrotionella, Hillia, Koninckocarinia, Carcinophyllum, Axolithophyllum, Lonsdaleoides, Amygdalophylloides, Ivanovia.***

Both are,as rugosan taxonomy goes,pretty informative papers,bordering on "required reading"

outtake de Groot:

[FossilNerd]

6 hours ago, doushantuo said:

yes and no:same author,different publications.

Oh you are right! Same author, and looks like the same general subject, but different publication. I was up late and my bleary eyes didn’t catch that.