Missouri Coral?

[MoRockHunter]

So here is this rock that I thought looked similar to coral and is actually the rock that made me discover part of missouri was underwater at some point in history.

         Is this a piece of coral ? And if not can anybody tell me what it is ?

       I'm back and forth on this is it coral? 

or is it made of sediment? Or something else altogether?

    

[caldigger]

@Missourian

[TqB]

EDIT: Blowing it up, the whole thing looks like decalcified crinoid debris (i.e. leaving holes in the matrix), not a sponge (or a coral).

 

 

 

Not a coral, (but it could be a sponge - it looks like a spicule network). The circular shapes in the second photo might be crinoid ossicle impressions.

[Missourian]

I too see crinoid columnals.

 

(As an aside, what is with that horrific watercolor effect in some phone-cam images? My iphone 4s took wonderful photos. My newer iPhone SE images are garbage up close.)

[Rockwood]

On 10/3/2019 at 3:05 AM, TqB said:

decalcified crinoid debris

Agreed.

Like most of my 'sponges' turn out to be on closer inspection.

[Mark Kmiecik]

15 hours ago, Missourian said:

(As an aside, what is with that horrific watercolor effect in some phone-cam images? My iphone 4s took wonderful photos. My newer iPhone SE images are garbage up close.)

I believe it is color compensation/correction for the type of lighting the camera is set for. You have to go into camera settings and play with light source types. I know that digital cameras allow the user to choose among sunlight, tungsten, mercury, fluorescent, incandescent, etc. My iPhone6 lets me choose from several, and I'm sure the SE is more advanced than that.