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What type of coral is this?


wintrbird89

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Can you be a bit more specific about the location, such as a nearby town?  Belgium encompasses a surprisingly wide range of geological ages, which is relevant to the possible ID.

 

Don

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9 hours ago, FossilDAWG said:

Can you be a bit more specific about the location, such as a nearby town?  Belgium encompasses a surprisingly wide range of geological ages, which is relevant to the possible ID.

 

Don

I found it in a gravel in Houthalen, Limburg

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The literature indicates that the bedrock geology is Upper Cretaceous (Santonian-Campanian) which is consistent with a scleractinian coral, perhaps preserved in flint.  Quite a few corals have been identified from nearby Upper Cretaceous localities such as in Limburg Province in the Netherlands.  A possible guess as to genus would be Actinasterea (see here and scroll down to the corals).  However confident identification to genus or species requires thin sections to show internal structures, which is not likely in the case of your specimen. 

 

Since this specimen came from gravel, one cannot discount the possibility that the source is not local.  Gravel in the area is known to contain Devonian as well as Cretaceous fossils, for example, as there are many Devonian localities not far away in Belgium.  However the coral (as far as can be judged from the corallte surface) does look more like a scleractinian than a tabulate or rugose coral.  Scleractinians replaced rugosans at the beginning of the Mesozoic, so Cretaceous stony corals are all scleractinians, whereas Devonian corals are tabulates and rugosans.

 

Don

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7 hours ago, FossilDAWG said:

The literature indicates that the bedrock geology is Upper Cretaceous (Santonian-Campanian) which is consistent with a scleractinian coral, perhaps preserved in flint.  Quite a few corals have been identified from nearby Upper Cretaceous localities such as in Limburg Province in the Netherlands.  A possible guess as to genus would be Actinasterea (see here and scroll down to the corals).  However confident identification to genus or species requires thin sections to show internal structures, which is not likely in the case of your specimen. 

 

Since this specimen came from gravel, one cannot discount the possibility that the source is not local.  Gravel in the area is known to contain Devonian as well as Cretaceous fossils, for example, as there are many Devonian localities not far away in Belgium.  However the coral (as far as can be judged from the corallte surface) does look more like a scleractinian than a tabulate or rugose coral.  Scleractinians replaced rugosans at the beginning of the Mesozoic, so Cretaceous stony corals are all scleractinians, whereas Devonian corals are tabulates and rugosans.

 

Don

Thank you so much!!

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