Microscopic horn coral, or ruins of ancient walled miniature city? ;-)

[Pippa]

Can anyone confirm that this to be a tiny horn coral at the top of this little pebble? Its diameter is about 3mm.

It's not at all perfectly preserved, but what a surprise I had when I discovered it through my clip-on phone microscope. 

Sorry about the grainy quality of the close-up image, it's as good as it gets using a $4.50 clip-on toy microscope  

Also, I assume those are beekite lined shell bits on the sides of the pebble?  TIA!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TqB]

Beautiful specimen!

I think the whole pebble is part of a rugose colony, with the circular bit being the centre of one corallite, surrounded by large bubbly dissepiments. It's a type of colonial structure called aphroid and it looks like an Arachnophyllum or similar (Silurian). (Look up "aphroid coral" for more info.)

 

Transverse and longitudinal sections through Arachnophyllum colony:

[Rockwood]

I can see these being the cause of many an unknown.

[caldigger]

I vote for the "City" myself! 

[sharkdoctor]

Great pics. I'd also like to nominate you for the non-existent, but badly needed, "Most Creative and Evocative Post Title" award for this year!

[Pippa]

10 hours ago, TqB said:

Beautiful specimen!

I think the whole pebble is part of a rugose colony, with the circular bit being the centre of one corallite, surrounded by large bubbly dissepiments. It's a type of colonial structure called aphroid and it looks like an Arachnophyllum or similar (Silurian). (Look up "aphroid coral" for more info.)

 

 

Thank you, thank you, TqB! Wow! You sure came through! I wasn't going to ask about this particular fossil, as I was pretty sure it being a horn coral. But, I'm so glad I decided to ask here, vs just slapping this fossil with the "Rugose Coral" label.

This is the first confirmed colonial rugose coral for me, so this is really exciting. I suspect I might have some that are still  unidentified, I'm going to have to look through a lot of my finds.

I'm still at work right now. Will follow your suggestions and google aphroid corals and read up on them. 

And yes, it is a lovely specimen, thank you.

 

[Mark Kmiecik]

9 hours ago, caldigger said:

I vote for the "City" myself! 

Ancient Celtic from the looks of it.

[Pippa]

 

On 2/21/2020 at 5:55 AM, Rockwood said:

I can see these being the cause of many an unknown.

Agreed.

 

On 2/21/2020 at 6:47 AM, caldigger said:

I vote for the "City" myself! 

And surrounded by frozen tundra.

 

On 2/21/2020 at 7:23 AM, sharkdoctor said:

Great pics. I'd also like to nominate you for the non-existent, but badly needed, "Most Creative and Evocative Post Title" award for this year!

But maybe I'm just having a really bad case of pareidolia...?  

But thank you for the nomination!

 

16 hours ago, Mark Kmiecik said:

Ancient Celtic from the looks of it.

Oh you're right, I see that now.  Enjoy this sunny and warm day!