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Syringoporid Coral???


minnbuckeye

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As you can see, Minnesota is locked into winter:

 

DSC_0511-001.JPG.4f88c2d94db643bb72fec895507cf869.JPG

 

  

 Fossil hunting is obviously out of the question. But other activities can be just as enjoyable such as bird watching:

 

DSC_0498-001.JPG.8e5566e24c40da3ec26b421553554198.JPG 

 

Or fishing:

 

DSC_0516-001.JPG.426c48076ad1292d47c761ebfd40e7af.JPG 

 

Or working on cleaning up one's finds from last summer. Such has been the case this February. I had collected a colonial coral completely embedded in matrix last summer. Only the circular tips of the coral showed themselves. I have looked at that ball of rock many times wondering if I could expose its deeper treasures. So early this month, I began to remove the matrix around the coral. It became VERY frustrating because any exposed coral was EXTREMELY brittle. In fact at one point, I tossed it into my pitch pile out of frustration. But being a stubborn person, I looked at it in the trash can and said, one more time. This go around, I slowed down. How many times have I heard this when it comes to fossil prep! I got out my paraloid or b- something and smeared it on the exposed pieces to stabilize them. I super glued all of the broken bits back on. Then on a daily basis, I would expose a little more then stabilize it. Then after a few weeks, I could not reach any deeper and quit. Here is the specimen that I would like a conformation ID on:

 

2018-02-014.thumb.jpg.687772b0850946e72f8680097596716e.jpg 

 

 My guess is: 

 

  syring.jpg
Syringoporids are tabulate corals, a group that is always colonial. The corallites (tubes that contained the individual polyps) are vertical and were connected by small horizontal tubes, through which they shared common tissue. Some colonies had hundreds of corallites and built mounds up to a meter in diameter. Syringopora is the longest-ranging genus in the family, having started in the Ordovician Period and going extinct in the Permian.

 

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I think you may have it. Here is one of mine that I had identified here some while back for comparison: 

 

IMG_E2728.JPG

...How to Philosophize with a Hammer

 

 

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Hmmmm. 

Looks a bit different, but it is a beautiful thing! 

Thank goodness you kept with it, Mike, i love it! :):wub:

Great prep job! 

Life's Good!

Tortoise Friend.

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without a close up showing the pores, it looks like a bryozoan colony to me

"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence"_ Carl Sagen

No trees were killed in this posting......however, many innocent electrons were diverted from where they originally intended to go.

" I think, therefore I collect fossils." _ Me

"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."__S. Holmes

"can't we all just get along?" Jack Nicholson from Mars Attacks

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Now that's dedication (or just stubbornness). Either way it turned out great!

“...whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved.” ~ Charles Darwin

Happy hunting,

Mason

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25 minutes ago, Herb said:

without a close up showing the pores, it looks like a bryozoan colony to me

Yes, I think i'm with you Herb, it doesn't have the 'straight lines' for Syringopora. 

But which bryozoans looked like that? 

Life's Good!

Tortoise Friend.

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That growth form is typical of a lot of Paleozoic "twiggy" bryozoans.  They can't be IDed without making thin sections unfortunately.  That is a very special specimen, one rarely sees the intact colony like that.

 

Don

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 Thanks to all that responded @Herb, @piranha, @Tidgy's Dad, @FossilDAWG, @Kane, @WhodamanHDThe reason I feel Syringoporid seems to fit is the multiple horizontal tubes that exist. They do not show up well but are definitely present. They do not seem like  "branches". I thought they were strange as I prepped it but it wasn't until I read about Syringoporids that it made sense.

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It is not a Syringopora (very branching and no cross pieces); it is a bryozoan. See lower right part of photo on the left side shows the pores of a bryozoan. I wish everyone could provide a photo with such detail. The answer is often in the details of a photo.

2018-02-014.jpg.dbc22bcd0634ea26f160122ed1536689 (528x472).jpg

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Hallopora sp

Hallopora_multitabulata_fossil_bryozoan_(Ordovician;_Frankfort_IL.jpg

"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence"_ Carl Sagen

No trees were killed in this posting......however, many innocent electrons were diverted from where they originally intended to go.

" I think, therefore I collect fossils." _ Me

"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."__S. Holmes

"can't we all just get along?" Jack Nicholson from Mars Attacks

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1 hour ago, ynot said:

Nice. Should be in the fossil of the month contest.(if You have before pictures)

Sadly not mine. I don't have the patience to reassemble one

"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence"_ Carl Sagen

No trees were killed in this posting......however, many innocent electrons were diverted from where they originally intended to go.

" I think, therefore I collect fossils." _ Me

"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."__S. Holmes

"can't we all just get along?" Jack Nicholson from Mars Attacks

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24 minutes ago, Herb said:

Sadly not mine. I don't have the patience to reassemble one

I meant @minnbuckeye's piece.

Sorry for any confusion @Herb. (not to say the one You showed is not nice.)

Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys."

Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough."

 

My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection

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@Herb, and @DPS Ammonite, You have convinced me!!!! As I said earlier, I am stubborn. So your examples let me overcome my "personality disorder". Shocked that pores could be seen through the 1/4 inch coating of consolidant. I have thought about soaking it in acetone to  remove it, but have been scared to see it possibly fall apart.

 

 

13 hours ago, ynot said:

Nice. Should be in the fossil of the month contest.(if You have before pictures)

 

 @ynot  Unfortunately, if you would have seen this piece at the start of prep, there would be NO reason to suspect it would be worthy of entering this contest, hence no pic!! Hope you get into the smoky quartz for digit!!!!!!

 

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