Devonian coral Favosites sp. from Arkona

[Greg.Wood]

Favosites sp. from the Devonian Hungry Hollow member in Arkona, Canada. One of the more interesting corals I've collected, I'm trying to narrow down the species if possible. Any ideas?

[Rockwood]

You have to admire it's tenacity whatever species it is.

[Pippa]

2 hours ago, Greg.Wood said:

Favosites sp. from the Devonian Hungry Hollow member in Arkona, Canada. One of the more interesting corals I've collected, I'm trying to narrow down the species if possible. Any ideas?

 

Greg, alas, I'm a total newb in the way of fossils and can't help you, but hope despite what your lovely specimen has gone through, somebody will be able to help.

Have a lovely Sunday!

2 hours ago, Rockwood said:

You have to admire it's tenacity whatever species it is.

Agreed! 

Rockwood, your comments never fail to make me laugh!  Thanks!

[Rockwood]

18 minutes ago, Pippa said:

Agreed! 

Rockwood, your comments never fail to make me laugh!  Thanks!

 Sometimes I forget that not everyone finds it natural to empathize with a polyp colony that died hundreds of millions of years ago. 

[Ludwigia]

3 hours ago, Rockwood said:

 Sometimes I forget that not everyone finds it natural to empathize with a polyp colony that died hundreds of millions of years ago. 

Some of them are still very entertaining

 

 

 

[Ludwigia]

F.favosus perhaps?

[Rockwood]

17 minutes ago, Ludwigia said:

Some of them are still very entertaining

Preaching to the quire. 

I'd make the one in front spit out his gum.

[minnbuckeye]

The corallites of your sample have a wide variety of sizes. The favosites in my area have corallites that are much more uniform. I am not saying this isn't a favosite. Waiting for others to respond.

Anyways, neat find. 

 

Mike

[Guest11596]

Hi Greg,

 

Any chance you could provide sharp photos of the upper and lower surface?

[Misha]

That's a really cool looking fossil,

But I cannot help with the ID as I am not very familiar with these corals yet.

[Arion]

One possibility is Favosites argus, which tends to have larger corallites surrounded by smaller ones (as appears to be the case here). Favosites placenta is another Arkona favositid that’s fairly common, but it has corallites that are of relatively uniform size; hence I think we can rule that out.

 

There are also a number of other favositid species described from Arkona that are less well known; perhaps someone else with more experience in the area has some examples of those. 

[Shamalama]

It's a nice small colony that either regenerated or was regularly recolonized.  These smaller Favosites species always stump me too but I'd agree with @Arion that F. argus seems a likely possibility.

[Greg.Wood]

@middevonian

 

[FossilNerd]

A very cool looking specimen. 
 

I don’t know if @TqB is familiar with the species from the area, but he’s usually pretty good with coral IDs.  

[Guest11596]

On 11/11/2019 at 2:27 PM, Greg.Wood said:

@middevonian

 

Hi Greg,

 

I'd label it as Favosites argus. I've attached an excerpt from "FENTON C, . L., and FENTON M, . A. 1936. The "Tabulate" Corals of Hall's "Illustrations of Devonian Fossils." Ann. Carnegie Mus., Vol. 25, pp. 17-58, 8 pls." if you care to peruse. It's the publication cited in the '58 checklist for F. argus. Also, if you can manage a copy, "Ross, M. H. 1953. The Favositidae of the Hamilton Group (Middle Devonian of New York). Bull. Buffalo Soc. Nat. Sci., Vol. 21, No. 2, pp. 37-89, 16 pls., 9 figs.". It's indispensable resource as far as Hamilton Group favositids are concerned.

 

f_argus_fenton_1936.pdf

 

Best,

Darrell

[TqB]

9 hours ago, FossilNerd said:

A very cool looking specimen. 
 

I don’t know if @TqB is familiar with the species from the area,

Thanks for the shout but I'm not! It's a lovely specimen.