What species of coral is this?

[rew]

Can anyone tell me what this species of coral is?  It's from the Thornloe Formation in Northern Ontario, and is of early Silurian age.

 

Edited December 2, 2021 by rew

[Carl]

Favosites is your best bet here.

[Kane]

Agreed, and it is pictured in Copper and Armstrong:

 

Copper, P. and Armstrong, D.K. 1999. Ordovician and Silurian Fossils and Strata of the Lake Timiskaming Outlier. Field Trip B2 Guidebook.

 

Also relevant:

 

 

Bolton, T.E. and Copeland, M.J. 1972. Paleozoic formations and Silurian biostratigraphy, Lake Timiskaming region, Ontario and Quebec. Geological Survey Canada, Paper 72-15: 1-49.

[FossilDAWG]

A scale would be helpful.  The photo provides no clue about the size of the corallites.  Even with a scale a confident ID would be unlikely, but the range of possibilities could be narrowed down.  The coral fauna there is quite diverse, with several species of favositids (yours probably belongs to this group) and numerous others of haysitids, syringoporids, heliolitids, etc.  Identifying species really requires some information about internal structures such as spacing of tabulae, presence of septa or septal spines, presence and location of pores in the corallite walls, etc.

 

The Bolton & Copeland publication is available as an online pdf I think.  The Copper & Armstrong publication is very hard to find.  Fortunately Bolton and Copeland is better for IDing.

 

Did you collect this specimen yourself?  It's a long drive to get up to the Lake Temiskaming area!

 

Don

[rew]

The coral is 3.5 centimeters across. 

[oyo]

What about briozoa ???. Even both, coral and bryozoan ???.

Edited December 3, 2021 by oyo

[rew]

The consensus is that the coral is a species in the genus Favosites, species not certain

 

Good enough.  Thanks to all who responded.