Coral (3) from the Campanian St. Bartholomä formation, Styria, Austria (Gosau group, Eastern Alps)

[FranzBernhard]

Hello,

and here is the next (third) coral from the Campanian of St. Bartholomä, Styria, Austria.

First photo: Its the largest specimen I have found so fas. The colony is about 20 cm high and is weighing ca. 4.2 kg. Not much to see, photo just for reference. The grey x indicates the location of the second photo.

Second photo: On some parts of the colony, individual corallites are clearly visible. Natural surface, nothing done to it.

I have also cut off a piece to make a polished slab. Just about 13 mm below the surface of the colony, the coralites are mostly recrystallized (thats a usual case)

Third photo: So I have slightly ground and polished the surface of the cut-off piece, with a somewhat better result, showing a few nice corallites.

But I am at a loss with this one, I am recognizing the prominent and thick costae, which let me to the consclusion that it could be belong to Nefocoenia/Neocoenia/Placocoenia/Neocoeniopsis (according to the papers of Baron-Szabo (2003, 2014)). But I can not go any further...

Any help is gratefully acknowledged! Thank you!
Franz Bernhard

[FranzBernhard]

[HansTheLoser]

Clearly Hydnophoropsis, since it has external pali, pali that emerge from the costae. The columella is a little bit weak, otherwise coincides well. The species is probably H. oppenheimi, but with certain reservation since the type specimen is missing. It was a specimen of the Oppenheim collection (that is curated in Jerusalem) but some specimens are missing.  I guess Marcel Beauvais took and never returned them. The location of the Coll. Beauvais is a secret that I do not know.

[FranzBernhard]

Thanks, Hans, thats a surprise! The external pali are obviously the dots between the coralites, I did not even recognize them (I really know nothing about corals .) I will label it as Hydnophoropsis and mention in the text that it has similarities to H. oppenheimi.

Thanks you very much for your help!
Franz Bernhard

[HansTheLoser]

It is not this easy to work with corals, but there is some helpful literature, even in the German language.