Heliophyllum - The 3 kings of horn corals

[mikeymig]

The Three Kings

Stationary epifaunal suspension feeders

 

Heliophyllum is an extinct genus of corals that existed predominantly in the Devonian. Heliophyllum is of the order Rugosa and can be referred to as horn corals. This is what the internet tells you about this well known and popular fossil coral and that's about it. I'm fortunate to have collecting sites here in NY with excellent examples of this very cool fossil. I thought it would be neat for you to see examples of three types of Heliophyllum that I find. Of course the most common species I find is Heliophyllum halli  (Edwards and Haime 1851) the solitary rugose. This is The King of Heliophyllum corals and are common to find here in NY at certain localities. Complete or "fresh" specimens are uncommon. A fresh coral would be one that has just weathered from the formation and is undamaged, unworn/tumbled by a stream. The majority of the Heliophyllum halli corals I find are 1-3 inches long with many being between 3-6 inches and a few over 6 inches in length. I find some with perfectly preserved epibionts that help tell a story of that paleoenvironment Heliophyllum halli lived in. The next King of this story is Heliophyllum confluens (Hall 1876) the colonial rugose coral. This species is much rarer then the solitary Heliophyllum halli. Confluens can form large colonies made up of several individual coralites that form a solid coral head. Each colony is different and many fantastic shapes can be found in this species. The third King is Heliophyllum delicatum (Oliver and Sorauf, 1994) a budding colonial  coral. Delicatum is only found in the lower Deep Run Shale Member of the Moscow formation. This is my favorite of the three kings. They are the rarest Heliophyllum to find and complete undamaged colonies are near impossible due to their delicate nature. Unlike Heliophyllum confluens, delicatum coralites do not grow together to form a coral head. Instead each coralite individually grows out of a single main corals calyx. This can happen several times within the same colony forming a bouquet of fossil corals. I am not an expert on corals past or present. These are my observations over years of fossil collecting in New York. I hope this helps in your fossil ID or clears up some confusion when talking about these Kings of horn corals.   mikey

[Darktooth]

Interesting, thanks for sharing!

[Tidgy's Dad]

Beautiful specimens and an interesting read.

Thank you. 

[Herb]

nice display

[mikeymig]

Thanks guys. I know its a boring fossil to most people but they are close to my heart. Heliophyllum was the first fossil I found when I was a kid and I knew, without anyone telling me, that this was a fossil and it was from a long since dried up ocean   

[Tidgy's Dad]

5 minutes ago, mikeymig said:

Thanks guys. I know its a boring fossil to most people but they are close to my heart. Heliophyllum was the first fossil I found when I was a kid and I knew, without anyone telling me, that this was a fossil and it was from a long since dried up ocean   

Not at all boring to me.

I love palaeozoic corals.

[ynot]

Very nice, thanks for sharing.

[Wrangellian]

I have to wonder about people who find this kind of thing boring... No, they didn't have teeth or claws, but they lived much longer ago than most vertebrates (at least land vertebrates) - to me that's something, besides their aesthetic qualities.

Great specimens/display.

[Peat Burns]

4 minutes ago, Wrangellian said:

I have to wonder about people who find this kind of thing boring... No, they didn't have teeth or claws, but they lived much longer ago than most vertebrates (at least land vertebrates) - to me that's something, besides their aesthetic qualities.

Great specimens/display.

+1.  Love me some horn corals!  One of my absolute favorites!

[Wrangellian]

One of the Paleozoic staples, aside from trilobites, brachiopods and odd echinoderms.

[FranzBernhard]

7 hours ago, mikeymig said:

I know its a boring fossil to most people but they are close to my heart

No, no, no !!!.

I like them very much! Thanks for sharing and the background info!

Franz Bernhard

[Monica]

I'm more of an invertebrate fan, too, so in my humble opinion your horn corals rock!!!  I especially like your two colonial species -  I've only ever found solitary rugose corals so I'd be super-excited to find a colonial species!  Thanks for showing us a bit of your collection!

 

 

[mikeymig]

Size reference pics of the Kings  

 

 

[erose]

I’m a fan!

[Al Tahan]

Ha...seeing these photos means I just messaged @mikeymig on our favorite auction site! Can’t miss that red background ...mike should I message you here or on the “other site” lol

[mikeymig]

23 hours ago, Al Tahan said:

Ha...seeing these photos means I just messaged @mikeymig on our favorite auction site! Can’t miss that red background ...mike should I message you here or on the “other site” lol

You can friend me on FB if you want. 

[Coco]

It is dangerous to put a "clickable" email on a forum, you will be invaded with spam! It is better to write mikeymig @ yahoo.com and the whole world will include

 

Coco

[mikeymig]

16 hours ago, Coco said:

It is dangerous to put a "clickable" email on a forum, you will be invaded with spam! It is better to write mikeymig @ yahoo.com and the whole world will include

 

Coco

oops

[MeargleSchmeargl]