Agatized coral from the Withlacoochee River, southern Georgia

[MarcoSr]

I acquired these agatized corals from TFF member John Sacha @Sacha through an “Auction to Support The Forum” a few years ago.  I usually only put a high value on fossils/minerals that I collect myself.  However, I have always really liked these agatized corals.  I recently acquired a UV light to check fossils for the amount of repair and restoration that they might have.  Of course I decided to look at a lot of my fossils under the UV light and take some pictures.  With these agatized corals the UV light pictures are interesting.  However, I decided to take pictures in just natural light.  To me the natural colors are awesome.  I now really like these agatized corals more than when I first received them.  Agatized corals get a lot more complex and colorful than these specimens that I have.  Maybe other TFF members can post a few of their specimens?

 

Agatized corals in natural light:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Agatized corals in UV light:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marco Sr.

[oyo]

I know that it is not the same as you present but it is still an example of extreme crystallization in corals.
I think the crystals are calcite but the minerals I recognize are not my strong suit.
The coral is Siderofungia forojuliensis (d'Achiardi, 1975) Eocene Bartonian.

 

[MarcoSr]

53 minutes ago, oyo said:

I know that it is not the same as you present but it is still an example of extreme crystallization in corals.
I think the crystals are calcite but the minerals I recognize are not my strong suit.
The coral is Siderofungia forojuliensis (d'Achiardi, 1975) Eocene Bartonian.

 

Wow, really nice.  I don't find any corals at all in the Eocene of Maryland and Virginia which I collect a lot .

 

Marco Sr.

[Ludwigia]

Nice idea. I got these on the Secret Santa exchange 2 years ago and fell in love with them right away. They are also Withlacoochee corals.

 

 

 

 

 

[FossilNerd]

Nice everyone! I don’t have any to share (yet...) but I have always enjoyed them. I really like the botryoidal ones best. 

[MarcoSr]

2 hours ago, Ludwigia said:

Nice idea. I got these on the Secret Santa exchange 2 years ago and fell in love with them right away. They are also Withlacoochee corals.

 

 

Wow, I really like the different shades of vivid red colors of the spheroids on the above specimen.

 

Marco Sr.

 

[minnbuckeye]

I was gifted two specimens of Agatized coral from the Withlacoochee River from a wonderful forum member I had the privilege of hunting with. They are displayed in my living room and receive compliments from many visitors.

[Ruger9a]

17 hours ago, oyo said:

I know that it is not the same as you present but it is still an example of extreme crystallization in corals.
I think the crystals are calcite but the minerals I recognize are not my strong suit.
The coral is Siderofungia forojuliensis (d'Achiardi, 1975) Eocene Bartonian.

 

 

 

 

 

I really like this specimen!!!

[Sacha]

I've loved collecting, cutting and polishing this stuff for years. This is the overflow on display in my garage. Most of the best pieces are in the house, the Museum of Arts and Science in Daytona or the Gillespie Museum at Stetson in DeLand. Fortunately I'm size limited with a 14 inch diamond saw, or it would really be out of control.

 

Many of these will find their way into forum members hands through future auctions to benefit the forum.

 

 

 

 

[oyo]

23 hours ago, MarcoSr said:

 

Wow, really nice.  I don't find any corals at all in the Eocene of Maryland and Virginia which I collect a lot .

 

Marco Sr.

 

7 hours ago, Ruger9a said:

I really like this specimen!!!

I´m glad you like it.

 

7 hours ago, Sacha said:

I've loved collecting, cutting and polishing this stuff for years. This is the overflow on display in my garage. Most of the best pieces are in the house, the Museum of Arts and Science in Daytona or the Gillespie Museum at Stetson in DeLand. Fortunately I'm size limited with a 14 inch diamond saw, or it would really be out of control.

 

Many of these will find their way into forum members hands through future auctions to benefit the forum.

 

 

 

 

 

Do these agatized corals that you show us retain any structure of the original corals, external or internal, or are it just crystals?

[Ludwigia]

8 hours ago, Sacha said:

I've loved collecting, cutting and polishing this stuff for years. This is the overflow on display in my garage. Most of the best pieces are in the house, the Museum of Arts and Science in Daytona or the Gillespie Museum at Stetson in DeLand. Fortunately I'm size limited with a 14 inch diamond saw, or it would really be out of control.

 

Many of these will find their way into forum members hands through future auctions to benefit the forum.

 

 

 

 

Wowie zowie!!!!!

[MarcoSr]

8 hours ago, Sacha said:

I've loved collecting, cutting and polishing this stuff for years. This is the overflow on display in my garage. Most of the best pieces are in the house, the Museum of Arts and Science in Daytona or the Gillespie Museum at Stetson in DeLand. Fortunately I'm size limited with a 14 inch diamond saw, or it would really be out of control.

 

Many of these will find their way into forum members hands through future auctions to benefit the forum.

 

 

 

 

 

John

 

Incredible.  Definitely agatized coral heaven!!!!!!!!!  I really do highly prize the specimens from your auction shown in my post.  Thank you for your generosity in putting these incredible specimens in auctions to benefit the forum.

 

Marco Sr.

 

 

[Sacha]

3 hours ago, oyo said:

 

I´m glad you like it.

 

 

Do these agatized corals that you show us retain any structure of the original corals, external or internal, or are it just crystals?

 

External structure remains intact for many of the pieces. Internal structure tends t be lost in the highly agatized pieces but remained in those not fully replaced.

[MarcoSr]

I just acquired these agatized corals from the Withlacoochee River in Southern Georgia from TFF member John Sacha @Sacha through a “Christmas Auction to Support The Forum”.   I have always really liked agatized corals.  With these agatized corals some of the UV light pictures are very interesting.  However to me, the natural colors are truly awesome. 

 

Agatized corals in natural light:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Continued in next reply

Marco Sr.

 

[MarcoSr]

Agatized corals in UV light:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marco Sr.

[MarcoSr]

Below are pictures of two pieces of agatized coral (1.3 kg and .5 kg) from Indonesia that I just received.  The agatized coral from Indonesia that I have seen, like these pieces, really shows the coral patterns.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marco Sr.

Edited December 22, 2020 by MarcoSr
changed pictures

[minnbuckeye]

The corals presented in the posts above are all uniquely special. Mother nature has a way about her, bringing such beauty into the world for us to discover!  

 

Mike

[MarcoSr]

3 hours ago, minnbuckeye said:

The corals presented in the posts above are all uniquely special. Mother nature has a way about her, bringing such beauty into the world for us to discover!  

 

Mike

 

Mike

 

My main interest is shark, ray and bony fish fossils but I'm really developing a strong interest in agatized corals and petrified, agatized and opalized wood because of their incredible beauty.

 

Marco Sr.

[Gregcohen]

Florida has some really nice fossil corals.  Geode types with botryoidal and/or druzy centers, but also has ones made of solid agate and some even quartz that are perfect replicas of the originals.  It also has some equil to the Indonesian patterned types.

 

This agatized coral head is hollow with botryoidal.   But is highly detailed outside.  23-34 million years old.

 

 

[Gregcohen]

I attached a quartz coral head below that is a total replacement of the coralites.  

 

Plus an agatized coral that is completely replaced.

 

[Gregcohen]

Below is a Florida piece with the patterns in agate like the ones from Indonesian.  Some pieces in Florida are common low quality chert, but others can be just as nice as those coming from over seas.

 

I posted a bunch on Pinterest searchable by "Fossil Coral From Tampa Bay Florida".  I've made cabochons from a bunch of pieces and also show some chunks.  Even a few sugar quartz cabochons that show the coralite holes through the cabochon.

 

 

[MarcoSr]

On 12/30/2020 at 9:37 PM, Gregcohen said:

Florida has some really nice fossil corals.  Geode types with botryoidal and/or druzy centers, but also has ones made of solid agate and some even quartz that are perfect replicas of the originals.  It also has some equil to the Indonesian patterned types.

 

This agatized coral head is hollow with botryoidal.   But is highly detailed outside.  23-34 million years old.

 

 

 

On 12/30/2020 at 9:51 PM, Gregcohen said:

I attached a quartz coral head below that is a total replacement of the coralites.  

 

Plus an agatized coral that is completely replaced.

 

 

On 12/30/2020 at 10:13 PM, Gregcohen said:

Below is a Florida piece with the patterns in agate like the ones from Indonesian.  Some pieces in Florida are common low quality chert, but others can be just as nice as those coming from over seas.

 

I posted a bunch on Pinterest searchable by "Fossil Coral From Tampa Bay Florida".  I've made cabochons from a bunch of pieces and also show some chunks.  Even a few sugar quartz cabochons that show the coralite holes through the cabochon.

 

 

Wow, really nice specimens.  Thank you for posting.  I especially like this specimen:

 

 

 

 

Marco Sr.

[Gregcohen]

Just to show how Florida material compares, I found this one this week.  It has full centimeter coralites.  I have not gotten it to a lapidary club to slice yet, but hope to.

 

The main difference for this material is that it has micro-vugs so it has even the original corals internal structure. Some from Florida has the polyp areas back filled with quartz, agate, or chert (calcite can also occur).  Other have the holes remaining.  Some have those holes lined with quartz druzy like micro-geodes.  Some can have a combination of filled, empty, and druzy lined.  

 

I got an update from the Florida Museum of natural history.  They are writing a paper on Acopra coral fossils and have narrowed the date range of the area I collect to 22 to 26 million years old.

 

Keep in mind it can take 20 million years for complete Silicification to take place of fossils.  So different depths in a chunk end up with different levels of silicification in this material.

 

The brown/tan is mostly chert.  The blue-ish grey is agate, quartz, and some druzy quartz.  There is some calcite, but mostly a slim layer on the back not shown, and a little in the mix of the other material.

 

It should make interesting cabochons.

[MarcoSr]

3 hours ago, Gregcohen said:

Just to show how Florida material compares, I found this one this week.  It has full centimeter coralites.  I have not gotten it to a lapidary club to slice yet, but hope to.

 

Wow, that new piece is really interesting.

 

I've seen recently a couple of Indonesian sellers selling what they call "black coral".  The coloration is very similar to that piece that you posted earlier that I really like.  However, some Indonesian sellers dye the coral to get vivid reds and yellows so I'm not certain that the below piece hasn't been dyed black.

 

 

         

 

 

 

Marco Sr.

[Gregcohen]

Looks mostly natural to me.  Except might have some wax on it, mineral oil, epoxy, or wet.  My piece above in this thread is similiar.  Quartz Crystal's or since they are hollow I like to call micro-vugs.  I have three catagories.  One like below is rarer for me.  The picture does not show it but the piece is made up of millions of little sparkly Crystal's.  I've got pieces with more of solid quartz with micro-vugs just in the coralite pockets also.  Some also have 2mm quartz Crystal's radiating out as coralites.

 

This one has millions of tiny sparling quartz Crystal's.  I've never figured out how to capture the sparkle in a picture.

 

I'm hoping the new piece has micro-vugs like the Indonesian piece, but it's hard to tell from a side break exactly how the coralite cut perpendicular will turn out.  Most I've found has been white or clear quartz.  The new piece has blue-ish grey coralites through it with varying hole densities.

 

Thanks for the picture.  I guess I have seen others too.  Just most from Indonesia as solid.  

 

But the original point was Florida also has similiar material.  Most people just do not realize it.  Because whole towns in Indonesia are mining agatized coral from mountains.  Florida it's random from dredging and digging activities.  Not as a goal, but a byproduct.  It's not legal to dredge for it in Florida, but ok as a byproduct.  Basically Florida does not want people digging up present day coral beds to get fossils underneath.  But to deepen canals or build up areas on land with Army Corps of Engineers permission is ok.  I also heard a rumor of a town that dug an in ground city pool and found a lot of it, but I've never been able to find that pile if it still exists.