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Florida Agatized Sponge or Coral?


Bronzviking

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Showed the images above to a coral scientist friend of mine and her geologist husband who have many combined decades at looking at coral reefs (extant and in the fossil record). They were undecided between very worn coral colony and bryozoan colony but leaning toward bryozoan. It was nice to see the image from @Al Dente above as in my experience (mainly diving) I usually only encounter bryozoan colonies as 2D sheets of zooid chambers tiled together in a nice tessellated geometric pattern. I don't think I've ever seen such extensive bryozoan colonies with layer after layer built up into a thick sheet. I would have leaned toward exceedingly worn coral colony given what appear to be straight walls separating individual polyps and what appear to be growth bands.

 

If you want to have a higher certainty for an ID to keep this item out of the "unknown pile" you might try shooting an image to Roger Portell at the FLMNH and see if he has an opinion. He's likely seen more Florida invert fossils than most of us.

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

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As Ken just mentioned I think Roger is the guy to go who may have some additional insight. He's a pretty awesome wealth of expertise.

 

I know very little about sponges/coral. My initial feeling was bryozoan and that is skewed as I have a number of them from the Sarasota area that have similar worn form/layering. They are not silicified. What I dont understand are the apparent stellate structures Lori noticed and circled. I dont recall seeing that anywhere before in my material but I will check a few of the examples I have.....Could that be a bryozoan feature??...I dont know enough about bryozoans to say yes/no. Most of my pile is still unidentified and may or may not be even related to your find. If I find anything that seems worthwhile I'll let you all know....

 

Hope there is enough there for Roger to say for sure one way or the other. I'd be interested in what he says. Cool find!

 

Regards, Chris 

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19 hours ago, digit said:

Showed the images above to a coral scientist friend of mine and her geologist husband who have many combined decades at looking at coral reefs (extant and in the fossil record). They were undecided between very worn coral colony and bryozoan colony but leaning toward bryozoan. It was nice to see the image from @Al Dente above as in my experience (mainly diving) I usually only encounter bryozoan colonies as 2D sheets of zooid chambers tiled together in a nice tessellated geometric pattern. I don't think I've ever seen such extensive bryozoan colonies with layer after layer built up into a thick sheet. I would have leaned toward exceedingly worn coral colony given what appear to be straight walls separating individual polyps and what appear to be growth bands.

 

If you want to have a higher certainty for an ID to keep this item out of the "unknown pile" you might try shooting an image to Roger Portell at the FLMNH and see if he has an opinion. He's likely seen more Florida invert fossils than most of us.

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

Thanks Ken for taking the time getting help from your friends and posting Roger, it's much appreciated. :)

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Maybe there could be a possibility of silicified bryozoan covering a scleractinian coral (like Septastrea). :headscratch:

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