Description
Coral Colony arachnophylum 19.5cm Devonian period, 400 million years old
This Coral arachnophylum sp is a fascinating family group or fossilised coral colony that lived during the Devonian period. This is an excellent example of this fossil and is approximately 400 million years old. This specimen is a Colonial Rugose Coral arachnophylum sp. and is part of a colony. It has come from the Western Sahara region of Morocco, and has been left in its natural state. The actual surface shows the individual chambers in fantastic detail. Rugose corals were a common species during the Palaeozoic but by the end of the Permian Period they became extinct.
Corals are simple marine creatures, and are related to sea anemones. They consist of a mouth and a ring of numerous tentacles that surrounds it. The large colonies they create can continuously increase in size and in time become immense. The Great Barrier Reef in Australia for example stretches for 2300 kilometres and covers over 300,000 square kilometres. The oldest corals lived well over 5oo million years ago during the Cambrian Period. The actual body of a living coral is very delicate. The polyp however removes calcium carbonate from the saline water to form the calcareous skeleton to live in.
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