Mississippian/Pennsylvanian Plant or Shell fossils found in New Mexico need help IDing

[Kenny151]

This fossil is the shape of a cylinder and has this pattern all the way around. Was thinking it was the stem of some kind of plant life perhaps? Like a Crinoid or Blastoid. I'm not really sure.

These fossils are imprints I found in the rock. At first look I thought they were some kind of shell imprints but I am questioning myself now. Any ideas? Thank you!

[izak_]

They all appear to be corals, specific ID? No idea.

[Rockwood]

Crinoids and Blastoids are both animals, echinoderms that are relatives of starfish. That is not one in the first photo however. If there is a radial pattern on the ends that led you in that direction it's quite certainly a rugose coral.

The others are tabulates. Likely a favositid, but there will be other members along soon who are much more knowledgeable about them.

[TqB]

I agree the first one is a rugose coral.

A scale would be useful but I think the others are Chaetetes, a calcisponge once thought to be a tabulate coral.

[abyssunder]

Just to sustain the ID (which I considered very good), Chaetetes (Hetetes) are described as : typically large sponge that may be laminar, hemispherical or globular in shape, with skeleton consisting of long, narrow tubes (calices) generally 1mm or less in diameter, arranged in radial rays, which in cross section are poligonal or have a more meandering shape. Calices are divided horizontally by partitions (tabulae) and may have spines projecting inwards from their walls. The calcareous walls have a fibrous microstructure, lack pores, and occasionally contain simple embedded spicules. Long regarded as a tabulate coral, this genus is recognized now as a sponge, with a calcified basal skeleton. They formed colonies in the Silurian - Carboniferous period.

Edited February 8, 2016 by abyssunder