I'm In Guadeloupe!!! Coral.

[Maer]

Hello, I'm down in Guadeloupe in the French Antilles. How can you tell the difference between coral, and fossil? Is it the amount of rock? Is it weight? 

 

I hope everyone is doing well. Pictures when I can

[digit]

Pretty difficult. There is not much changing in a coral skeleton between freshly dead (sadly a lot of this) and those that expired millennia ago. The skeleton is fully mineralized from the time the coral animal creates it. If you have coral skeletons from corals no longer present in the area that is a good indicator (but they have not changed to the extent that it would be apparent in thousands of years). Probably the best indicator would be if the coral was taken from an uplifted section of reef now well inland. Hurricanes can toss individual corals a ways inshore but those further inland are likely relics of older reefs when the water level was higher or (on mountainous volcanic islands) when uplift has transported old reef systems well above present day sea level.

 

Sorry I can't be more helpful but it is like finding a piece of turtle shell or alligator tooth in the Peace River here in Florida. Those critters are still in the river so modern and ancient mix.

 

At least the weather in Guadeloupe is better than Ontario at present.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[Ludwigia]

5 hours ago, digit said:

 

At least the weather in Guadeloupe is better than Ontario at present.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

I'll bet you're not scuba diving in Ontario right now