FOS 018
Horn Coral
Location: Hamburg, NY
Family: Zaphrentidae
Now I generally don't post up fossils because I want to be fairly certain with the label before I do so and don't have enough time or resources to do some appropriate research. However, while I am not completely positive on the identification I'm hoping I'm correct with the family name. These types of fossils are generally known as Horn Corals due to their horn like appearance (the smaller end was attached to the reef) but they also go as Rugose Corals.
Generally solitary animals (yes corals are animals), these extinct creatures would live in shallow seas and have tentacles that would come out of the top portion to trap and capture prey. While I'm not completely positive on what the family/genus/species is for this particular specimen but it is very similar to the Heliophyllum genus of corals. I'm not going to say that it is because I don't think that it is quite the same but there are some close similarities, for now we can just keep it as a Rugose Coral. It was collected at the Penn Dixie site located in Hamburg, NY back in August of 2009.
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