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Tidgy's Dad

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Now, i found this when i was seven or eight years old, on the cut down to the beach at Kilve in Somerset, South West England. It was buried in a band of blue/ grey clay in the Psiloceras planorbis zone of the Blue Lias , Lower Jurassic. Although i'd found many lovely fossils before this was my first exceptional, "WOW!" find. I still don't know what it is and that was 45 years ago. A colonial coral colony yes, but i don't think it can be Liassic? A derived fossil from the Devonian or Carboniferous seems likely, but which one? And it shows very little signs of having been transported huge distances, as it's quite a way to the nearest relevant outcrops of those ages. 

Here it is :

20171202_122631-1.thumb.jpg.08bead2db1226171c5bfa8926a4a0db3.jpg 

Life's Good!

Tortoise Friend.

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" We are not separate and independent entities, but like links in a chain, and we could not by any means be what we are without those who went before us and showed us the way. "

Thomas Mann

My Library

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It's definitely a very nice Liassic one - Abyssunder has it though I believe it's called Heterastraea now. I have a couple of specimens of (probably) H. excavata from the Hettangian/lower Sinemurian of Yorkshire where it's hen's teeth.

Tarquin

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24 minutes ago, abyssunder said:

Genius, that's an excellent match! 

Thank you so much! :)

Life's Good!

Tortoise Friend.

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12 minutes ago, TqB said:

It's definitely a very nice Liassic one - Abyssunder has it though I believe it's called Heterastraea now. I have a couple of specimens of (probably) H. excavata from the Hettangian/lower Sinemurian of Yorkshire where it's hen's teeth.

Thank you, I had it tentatively listed as Heterastraea tomesi, but can't remember how i came to that conclusion. 

Hen's teeth is correct, nothing like it from that location, as far as I know, so i was beginning to doubt myself and assume it was somehow a Devonian or Carboniferous 'import'. 

I am most happy. :)

Life's Good!

Tortoise Friend.

MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png.a47e14d65deb3f8b242019b3a81d8160-1.png.60b8b8c07f6fa194511f8b7cfb7cc190.png

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It's a great specimen -  this paper describes the famous and fascinating occurrence of them growing on contemporaneously exposed Carboniferous limestone near Ogmore, Glamorgan, that's also referenced in Abyssunder's monograph (Sutton Stone).  It's not very far from yours but I think they're pretty rare on the Somerset coast, different environment.

 

https://www.palass.org//publications/palaeontology-journal/archive/38/3/article_pp529-541 

Tarquin

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7 hours ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

@Pachy, and anyone else who knows a bit about corals?

20171202_122931-1.thumb.jpg.d92a217b96557340652c1ab390fc7eab.jpg

Nice specimen.
It will have to be someone else to help you. Jurassic corals are not my thing. Sorry.
Maybe Hans The Loser.

Thanks for showing it.

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6 hours ago, TqB said:

It's a great specimen -  this paper describes the famous and fascinating occurrence of them growing on contemporaneously exposed Carboniferous limestone near Ogmore, Glamorgan, that's also referenced in Abyssunder's monograph (Sutton Stone).  It's not very far from yours but I think they're pretty rare on the Somerset coast, different environment.

 

https://www.palass.org//publications/palaeontology-journal/archive/38/3/article_pp529-541 

Very informative and interesting, but mine isn't encrusting it grows up and outwards from a holdfast, but the article does say that some species may or may not have encrusting varieties. 

Thank you for you help, learning a lot here.

54 minutes ago, Pachy said:

Nice specimen.
It will have to be someone else to help you. Jurassic corals are not my thing. Sorry.
Maybe Hans The Loser.

Thanks for showing it.

Thank you for looking, anyway. :)

Life's Good!

Tortoise Friend.

MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png.a47e14d65deb3f8b242019b3a81d8160-1.png.60b8b8c07f6fa194511f8b7cfb7cc190.png

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Wow great specimen. I would be over the moon if I had found this coral now, let alone when I was 8. Nice fossil coral.

 

cheers Bobby 

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