Wednesday, February 17, 2010

A Tale of Two Corals

Here is a closeup of a Foerstephyllum (Bassler, 1941) colonial coral fossil for the Upper Ordovician Period. It was found in Louisville, Kentucky. Notice the septa lines in individual coral cells.  These Kentucky fossils are quite beautiful and it is very nice when you can find them with exposed septa. The genus was named by Ray Bassler (1878-1961) to honor Ohio born Dr. August Foerste (1862-1936) Harvard educated paleontologist, geologist at United States Geological Survey (USGS) and high school science teacher.


These next two pictures are of another Upper Ordovician Period colonial coral fossil found with the previous fossil.  Its cell walls are in a different pattern.