Honeymoon Island Coral

[Cam28]

Decided to try out a new type of fossil huntin' last tuesday (12/23) & wasn't disappointed. I use to think it was a joke Agatized coral is the FL state fossil (& not something neater like Mastodon or Megalodon) but after this experience these remains are something else. Searched the Northwest beach & ended up keeping maybe 3/4 of all agatized coral I found; certainly wasn't expecting this sort of abundance & beauty without slicing them open (except the bottom 2 on the rightmost pic here, was able to bust that one on concrete but most didn't). Started by finding some in the water but became increasingly difficult as the tide started coming up & was surprised how much many were just lying fully exposed past the surf. I walked past several other collectors but to my surprise I don't think they knew what fossil coral was. Oh well. Wasn't much other interesting pieces besides these, a few mollusks shells, chunk of modern coral, & the modern find of the day- a weird dead crab (spider crab, near bottom right of first pic) of which I was easily able to salvage its shell.

Edited December 26, 2014 by Cam28

[Cam28]

More pics

[jcbshark]

Nice finds Paul, are you going to try to polish any of it? John (Sacha) makes some beautiful pieces!

[Cam28]

Thanks Jeff, maybe. Right now I'm in a bit of a "honeymoon" phase and love them naturally lol, so only time will tell.

[Sacha]

Nice finds Paul, are you going to try to polish any of it? John (Sacha) makes some beautiful pieces!

Thanks for the compliment, Jeff.

Paul, I think the majority of what you've collected is chert, and not the famous "Tampa Bay Coral" attributed to Honeymoon Island. The coral here tends to be hollow finger type coral, common to Ballast Point Park in Tampa, as apposed to the coral "Heads" found in the Withlacoochee.

I could be wrong, since I have made it a habit in previous FF Posts, but I've looked for coral on Honeymoon Island, found lots of this grey chert and exactly zero pieces of true coral. On the plus side, the chert does polish well and frequently an embedded shell makes for an interesting cabochon.

[Plantguy]

Decided to try out a new type of fossil huntin' last tuesday (12/23) & wasn't disappointed. I use to think it was a joke Agatized coral is the FL state fossil (& not something neater like Mastodon or Megalodon) but after this experience these remains are something else. Searched the Northwest beach & ended up keeping maybe 3/4 of all agatized coral I found; certainly wasn't expecting this sort of abundance & beauty without slicing them open (except the bottom 2 on the rightmost pic here, was able to bust that one on concrete but most didn't). Started by finding some in the water but became increasingly difficult as the tide started coming up & was surprised how much many were just lying fully exposed past the surf. I walked past several other collectors but to my surprise I don't think they knew what fossil coral was. Oh well. Wasn't much other interesting pieces besides these, a few mollusks shells, chunk of modern coral, & the modern find of the day- a weird dead crab (spider crab, near bottom right of first pic) of which I was easily able to salvage its shell.

Thanks for the compliment, Jeff.

Paul, I think the majority of what you've collected is chert, and not the famous "Tampa Bay Coral" attributed to Honeymoon Island. The coral here tends to be hollow finger type coral, common to Ballast Point Park in Tampa, as apposed to the coral "Heads" found in the Withlacoochee.

I could be wrong, since I have made it a habit in previous FF Posts, but I've looked for coral on Honeymoon Island, found lots of this grey chert and exactly zero pieces of true coral. On the plus side, the chert does polish well and frequently an embedded shell makes for an interesting cabochon.

Hey Paul/John, yep I agree that alot of what you have is probably chert from there but I bet there are some hidden things in those pieces. Look closely at every side of every piece...you may see some invertebrate cross sections and remains/clams etc and every once in awhile you'll come across several corallites showing their typical spoke like wall structures if you are lucky. Here's a closeup from a specimen I picked up awhile back from there.

Regards, Chris

[Cam28]

Thanks John & Chris for the clarification. Not to long ago I was googling how to identify agatized coral from interesting rocks, but surprisingly there are no comprehensive guides. & from hearing from so many websites how Honeymoon island has fossil coral, I though it was safe to assume at least most was coral.. Still, one of them (in my 2nd post) have 2 coral "spokes" which made it at least partial coral; and still overall interesting/collectible for being rocks from Florida

Edited December 27, 2014 by Cam28

[SoreBack]

Very Nice! I was in Dunedin last year and I didn't realize that there were fossils right down the street.

[verydeadthings]

Nice finds! A lot of the time the coral structure is gone, but occasionally you'll find recognizable corallites, particularly if you find a coral head or finger. If you do find a coral head, you can get good results slicing through it perpendicular to the corallites:

You can also find coral fingers:

I think the favorite one I've found so far on honeymoon doesn't have the coral structure but does have some very nice banding:

I'd love to see some more agatized coral from other people on the forum.

[squali]

http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?app=core&module=search&do=search&fromMainBar=1

here is the TFF gallery link for searched agatized coral.

I can't find the --Show Us Your.... -- threads. Maybe I'm doing something wrong.

[tomclark]

I've found a lot more good material along the Dunedin Causeway, especially when they were doing roadwork along the beach/access road, there were whole large coral heads that were dredged up from just offshore. Under that road is loaded with coral heads. After storms it is good looking in the shallow water.

[Khyssa]

I was down at Honeymoon Island this year in the spring and at the time they had a massive pile of limestone rock sitting in one of the northern beaches parking lots. They were spreading the rock, which contained a lot of chert, along the northern beaches to help prevent erosion. I came home with a bucket full of chert, some of which contained corallites and one nice piece with coral fingers embedded in it. I also found some fossilized coral, not agatized, amongst the limestone. Wish I could have gone through some of the limestone they hadn't spread yet but it was surrounded by a chain link fence.

[Miatria]

I just got into a pocket of agatized coral on the Alafia. Check out my gallery photos. I gotta agree with Cam28 that the "as is" look is really beautiful but I'd like to pick Sacha's brain on polishing techniques. I don't have any fancy polishing equipment although I will have unfettered access to a lapidary saw by the end of Feb. Sacha, I dig with Shellseeker when our schedules match and I met u out there once.

[Miatria]

http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/gallery/album/2137-alafia-river-coral/

[Sacha]

I just got into a pocket of agatized coral on the Alafia. Check out my gallery photos. I gotta agree with Cam28 that the "as is" look is really beautiful but I'd like to pick Sacha's brain on polishing techniques. I don't have any fancy polishing equipment although I will have unfettered access to a lapidary saw by the end of Feb. Sacha, I dig with Shellseeker when our schedules match and I met u out there once.

You found some nice material there. We were going to get together to try the Santa Fe and didn't make that trip either so now we have 2 spots to try. I haven't been getting out much this season, but expect after next week I'll be getting back into the swing of it (if the weather cooperates). PM me when you're available to go out and if I can go, we can negotiate which river to try and what access point. I'll bring coral to show and tell. Bring yours and we'll have a gab fest.

I have everything needed to cut and polish and would happy to coordinate with you to work something out. In the meantime, you may want to invest in one of the smaller tumblers for the smaller uneven pieces. It's easy and lowtech, but makes use of the chips and chunks too difficult to slab or grind to a desirable shape.

I'm going to cut and polish a dozen or so pieces that Ken and Tammy (Digit) collected on our joint trip to the Withlacoochee. I could work in some for you as well if you want to go that route.

[coral daddy]

most of that black rock there is what we call Baybottom it does have druzy all in it but there are coral heads there

[coral daddy]

found this there recently

[coral daddy]

I cabbed this out of a small piece I found there years back

[Khyssa]

Coral daddy, that's beautiful!

[coral daddy]

thanks, I prefer cabbing my land dug coral much better, more colors than the saltwater black blue or grey

[fossilbeagle]

Beyond grateful for this post. I had such a successful hunt based on what I read here! Thank you thank you!