Central Texas Cretaceous - Coral or Just Limestone?

[JamieLynn]

I know that Central Texas limestone can weather out into a WIDE variety of shapes and forms and I just assumed this was weathered limestone, cool looking but unremarkable. However, I have seen a couple of pics on the facebook rock groups of coral that looks suspiciously like this. However, I do not see the correct "striations" in mine that coral should have. So is this just a rock or is it coral? I don't believe there is any coral like this in the Cretaceous period, but I do not know, i might be wrong! 

 

 

Back side:

 

A picture of one from the groups: I believe he said his was from New York, and was posibly older than Cretaceous  I do not really remember.  Similar, not exactly the same, but close enough it made me wonder.

[Rockwood]

I think it is coral, but more likely scleractinian. The example is a tabulate.

[Notidanodon]

in my opinion, this is not a fossils as i cannot see any radial lines

[JohnJ]

Looks more like very weathered chert.  Wildfires will cause the circular divots by expanding moisture in the rock and popping them off like high speed razors.  

[Rockwood]

What's this little + then ?

[FranzBernhard]

5 hours ago, Rockwood said:

What's this little + then ?

A tricky one! 

Franz Bernhard

[TqB]

8 hours ago, JohnJ said:

Looks more like very weathered chert.  Wildfires will cause the circular divots by expanding moisture in the rock and popping them off like high speed razors.  

I agree, there's no coral structure. I don't know what the little plus sign is but chert can contain all sorts of small fossils and bits.

[Styles]

Living in Central TX and having found these on numerous occasions, I'm pretty squarely in the Chert camp.  Pitted by natural processes (eg. wildfires, as a commenter above said)

[JamieLynn]

thanks for the input everyone!

[grandpa]

Hey, @JamieLynn     I sure would have picked it up, brought it home, given it a second, and third and . . . look, and asked the forum for inputs.  It sure looks very convincing to me.  But in the end I think that @JohnJ nailed the ID for you.  Good eye my fellow CTx fossil hunter! 

Now I need to go reexamine some of my CTx "fossil Corals" to be sure I have what I think I have.

[JamieLynn]

my thoughts exactly, @grandpa = thought it was cool looking, but not much, brought it home,  saw some pics that looked similar, thought about it again, and posted here for the experts. I can't tell y'all hom much I love the Fossil Forum! 

[erose]

Yeah, never leave the odd stuff behind. John’s probably nailed it. There are some corals in the Lower Glen Rose that almost look like that, but you would see radiating septa in each coralite. 

[HansTheLoser]

To be sure, the sample needs a cut or a polished surface. I do not think it is a fossil, but I do not know the outcrop area or the type of material.