KGS Navigation Bar, Search, Contact, KGS Home, UK Home University of Kentucky at http://www.uky.edu Kentucky Geological Survey at http://www.uky.edu/kgs Search KGS at http://www.uky.edu/KGS/search.html contact kgs at http://www.uky.edu/KGS/about/contact.htm KGS Home at http://www.uky.edu/KGS/ UK Home at http://www.uky.edu KGS Home

KGS Home > Fossils > Invertebrate Fossils > Corals

Scenophyllum

Scenophyllum is another type of rugose coral common in the Jeffersonville Limestone (Devonian). It can be distinguished from other rugose corals by the nipple-like protrusion within it's calyx (see detail). Scenophyllum is generally narrower than Siphonophrentis. This specimen's calyx is 2 cm across. The coral is 16 cm long. It was collected by R. Todd Hendricks and donated to the Kentucky Geological Survey. It is pictured in Greb and others, 1993, Fossil beds of the Falls of the Ohio, Fig. 13f, p. 13.

Tabulophyllum

Some rugose horn corals have shapes that appear as cups (calices) within cups. Sometimes as if the cups were stacked one inside the other. This is Tabulophyllum from the Jeffersonville Limestone at the Falls of the Ohio. The lens cap is for scale. Tabulophyllum often has a twisting shape. Like most horn corals, this stacked-cup form started out as a single calyx (1 in the diagram on the right), growing upward from the sea bottom (2 in the diagram), until it was knocked over by storms or strong currents (3 in diagram). These types of coral would then sprout a new calyx (4 in diagram), which grew upwards, until it was knocked down. This might happen several times during the corals life, resulting in twisted, cup-in-cup shapes. (Diagram is modified from Greb and others, 1993, Fig. 14, p. 14. Identification is by Alan Goldstein.)

 

Back Next