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Cretaceous corals


Quer

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Hi everyone.

Here are some specimens from an Upper Campanian - Lower Maastrichtian reef in the Catalan Pyrenees, which species’ diversity amazes me.

In fact, they are collected in a 30 meter-radius point.

I’ve only been able to approximate their genus (thanks to @Pachy, mostly) . So, I’ll strongly appreciate any help.

 

Well, let’s start with the tiniest ones:

 

Heliopora sp. (=Polytremacis), an Octocorallian:

DSC_0015_t.thumb.JPG.ffba6a7bf0e5dcfb0aca31abff03d503.JPG

Columactinastrea sp.:

DSC_0009_t.thumb.JPG.97920f6fc3992e8327c994d01a3fa1f5.JPG

Synastrea ? (Only my guess)

DSC_0008_t.thumb.JPG.e8afac9b44d546c99ae26199c360e698.JPG

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Beautiful corals! Can't help with an I.D., but they're wonderful to look at. Nice finds and congrats!

...I'm back.

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I'm not familiar with Cretaceous corals, but those are gorgeous. Congratulations on some great finds and thanks for sharing them.

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Those are lovely specimens! :)

Nice photos too. 

Not sure Pachy will be back, sadly. :(

Life's Good!

Tortoise Friend.

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

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On 3/5/2018 at 7:49 PM, Tidgy's Dad said:

Not sure Pachy will be back, sadly. :(

I am sorry to know that, too.

 

In fact, this one was identified by him, Pachygyra sp., a meandroid or "brain" coral:

 

 

Pachygyra.thumb.JPG.626c4297bf1d9e7480710cd853362a02.JPG

 

An enlarged view:

 

Pachygyra_2.thumb.JPG.b3d64bd090a9714b07ebfe9f878b3a27.JPG

 

Other medium-size cretaceous corals: (not Id, only my guesses)

 

Montastrea sp. ?

 

Montastrea.thumb.JPG.6a2474ecdd2fdb50721b90da7b026b0f.JPG

 

And a "branched" coral: Pleurocora sp. ? (=Latohelia)

 

Pleurocora.JPG.8e014b80a974166dc1679b9d8c36d30b.JPG

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1 hour ago, Quer said:

I am sorry to know that, too.

 

In fact, this one was identified by him, Pachygyra sp., a meandroid or "brain" coral:

 

 

Pachygyra.thumb.JPG.626c4297bf1d9e7480710cd853362a02.JPG

 

An enlarged view:

 

Other medium-size cretaceous corals: (not Id, only my guesses)

 

Montastrea sp. ?

 

 

 

And a "branched" coral: Pleurocora sp. ? (=Latohelia)

 

 

Nice corals. 

Yes Pachy took his username from the first one, I suppose.

I think your ids are at least pretty close, but I'm not an expert by far. 

Life's Good!

Tortoise Friend.

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

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Thanks to all

4 hours ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

Yes Pachy took his username from the first one, I suppose.

I think your ids are at least pretty close, but I'm not an expert by far. 

 

Probably, yes.

I'm revising my specimens with this publication:

http://www.zobodat.at/stable/pdf/GeolPalaeMitt_023_0127-0191.pdf

Though some dozen kilometres away (and not the same Formation), I think there may be a reasonable similarity between "my" coral fauna and the Torallola's one.

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Let's show the solitary quarter's big boy: cyclolites sp. (cunnolites)

Weight: 1.030 gr.

Diameters: 110 x 100 mm.

Height: 68 mm

 

 

DSC_0875.thumb.JPG.9ba56d56f49781bd320b0691dedd51d1.JPG

 

In some catalan Pyrenean areas cyclolites are relatively abundant, and had a folklore of its own. They were called "Witch's small bread roll" (Panets de bruixa, in catalan).

Close-up pic:

DSC_0876.JPG.44aadbbd40cac1f39f16b7d116f24ef5.JPG

 

Flat base pic...:

 

DSC_0882.JPG.661b4354c201803b086cc679c6c44409.JPG

 

...wich is littered with bryozoans and tiny serpulid worms:

 

DSC_0880.JPG.4f47a48931d5b258acf425a2d7e22242.JPG

 

You can see its bigger (but less well-preserved) companion in this topic

 

 

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Some comments on taxonomy
1) Heliopora (Polytremacis is a synonym).
2) Genus of the family Actinastraeidae, not Columactinastrea (no pali).
3) Synastrea or Leptophyllastrea.
4) Pachygyra or related genus.
5) Probably Placocoenia or Orbicella. Montastrea = poorly defined, better do not use.
6) Probably a genus from the Cladoridae. Pleurocora belongs to the Phyllosmiliidae, Latohelia to the Latomeandridae.
7) Cyclolites is the right name. Cunnolites is a synonym.

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Thanks, Don, and thanks Hans for your impressive amount of taxonomical information. Thank you very much.

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Quer, there is modern literature that makes at least the determination of the genus not so difficult.

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There is a wealth of information on Cretaceous corals:Loeser,Bertling,Lathuiliere,Szabo...

 

 

 

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@doushantuo : Lathuilière and Bertling have never worked on Cretaceous, mainly Jurassic. 

@Wrangellian : I don't know but seven species is not this diverse. Quer has probably more material he did not present. 

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I've read something by Baron-Szabo and, of course, I imagine the Catalogue of Cretaceous Corals by Löser is a reference, but I don’t already have it yet.

Yes, I have more pieces, but no more guesses (I fear you kindly overestimate my knowledge), or they are not prepared.

 

Well, here are some ones:

DSC_0078.JPG.1a05276e3b368eaffa6270370180b072.JPGDSC_0079.JPG.5ed52b1baac75b754ea255f5128da273.JPGDSC_0028.JPG.9daa94efd233445c0b925870eb0f2026.JPGDSC_0027.JPG.b62990da80082913442ef31e300b5399.JPGDSC_0862.JPG.b32e460a5fcb7f5c0e82b5e4dcc4aa17.JPGDSC_0863.JPG.cc9750192fc4fce85c990ab5f66788f5.JPG

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On 4.6.2018 at 1:43 PM, Quer said:

I've read something by Baron-Szabo and, of course, I imagine the Catalogue of Cretaceous Corals by Löser is a reference, but I don’t already have it yet.

Well, here are some ones:

 

 

The new material is not so easy to identify. Baron-Szabo did a good work finally sectioning these corals, but her taxonomy is rather  conventional, so she overlooked taxa established by Reig Oriol. But to know the Reig Oriol taxa you must see the type themselves since the illustrations are not so good. The Catalogue may give you orientation for the systematic position of your material, but I guess that you have got also undescribed taxa.

 

 

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Thank you very much, Hans.

 

Certainly, it would be useless to show unidentified and likely unidentifiable corals. I hope the reading of the Catalogue and the Reig Oriol's Fauna coralina del nordeste de España will help to overcome my current impasse.

 

Finally, I want to mention a couple of articles wich are improved my understanding of coral-rudist lithosomes:

 

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/323801227_Paleoecology_of_Rudists

(pp. 17-19)

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/263009102_Corals_and_rudists_in_the_late_Cretaceous_a_critique_of_the_hypothesis_of_competitive_displacement

 

 

 

 

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Quer, you may obtain the Reig Oriol papers from the Seminario in Barcelona (contact Sebastian Calzada) but they are not of a great help because the illustrations do not help in ID the material. Moreover the descriptions are not up to date.

Rudists never replaced corals as reef builders, but as carbonate producers, yes, they did.

Try to continue to collect material and investigate in this fauna. If you need introductory material in Spanish please send a private message and I provide you with more information.

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  • 1 year later...

I’ve shelved my study of corals for some months, let’s return to it.

 

 

Here are some new pieces of very, very tiny corals. In this case I’m able to provide a precise stratigraphy, as they were in a Hippurites radiosus formation, a rudist which is a reliable stratigraphy marker for Upper Campanian in southern Pyrenees.

 

 

Most rare are this “flower” corals that I guess belong to Heterocoenia genus. Maybe @HansTheLoser could help. Diameter around 4 mm.

 

DSC_0079.thumb.JPG.66f84cd4134b29aefa3c09646427e4cb.JPGDSC_0087.thumb.JPG.162a567ff99b2266e2a2b0cbfb5d30b9.JPG

 

 

Some very small corals (diameter about 1 mm) I think from Actinastraea or related genus.

 

 

DSC_0077_amp.thumb.JPG.3217beb88130f29dc9f15e0973914f2b.JPG

 

DSC_0077.thumb.JPG.5ba16fcd5349e370a983dc067a3a1c1d.JPG

 

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Finally, a beautiful mould (?Synastrea)

 

DSC_0078_red.thumb.JPG.92b6d4ee6e08fc6fc86cf9438509a006.JPG

DSC_0078.JPG

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Yes, the first is very probably a member of the Heterocoeniidae, the second perhaps Actinastraeidae, the third Synastraeidae. -- Please look also at http://www.korallen-kreide.de

 

The page is in German but they have some nice images. The Gosau revision is also in German, but an English abridged version may be helpful in order to understand the concept.

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Thank you very much @HansTheLoser, a most interesting work, indeed.

 

There is also an interesting site in my area where corals and rudists can be seem side by side, in open air. It is another Hippurites radiosus horizon (so, an Upper Campanian strata). Yet the fossils tend to be heavily crystalysed,  you can take interesting pics:

 

The site, amid typical mediterranean maquis:

DSC_0091.thumb.JPG.9ea26e724a57acf8bd782633a2f64725.JPG

 

Let's start with this one. Left to right: Hippuritid, Radiolitid and some ?Agatheliidae corals

 

DSC_0329.thumb.JPG.7d4e23d9676e621a2af0e44c875eaf9f.JPG

 

Detail of the better preserved corallites:

 

DSC_0329_r1.thumb.JPG.41faa24128569f4634d73ef9370812a3.JPG

 

?Heliopora octocorallians abound:

 

DSC_0310.thumb.JPG.feb4e98a45fbac3df04b9a59544bb5d2.JPG

 

DSC_0310_r1.thumb.JPG.b93ed5db537f21b2a90340610109028c.JPG

 

And meandroid ones: ?Pachygyra (right)

 

DSC_0317.JPG.80955cf63dfbb602a6f297744362af07.JPG

 

DSC_0323_r2.thumb.JPG.db17debdcac217023bc741ab36b7d0d2.JPG

 

And least for the moment, a ?Hydnophorarea

 

DSC_0092.thumb.JPG.425d5b021d75bc670329a978c3239277.JPG

 

I think @FranzBernhard will enjoy this views too

 

 

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