Coral

Cyathophyllum sp.

(Animalia, Invertebrata, Coelenterata, Anthozoa)

Description: Specimen of a fossil coral, Cyathophyllum sp., collected from the Carboniferous Limestone (?) of Early (?) Carboniferous, Dinantian (?), Visean (?) age from Northumberland (NE England).

Cyathophyllum is a solitary coral (one that doesn't share a skeleton structure with other corals) that has a cylinder-shaped outer skeleton. This fossil shows sections of many solitary corals that lived close together. The internal structure of the coral skeleton is quite clear. Differences in the patterns of the radiating walls (septa) and circular walls (dissepiments) are used to identify different coral species. Like most corals Cyathophyllum lived on the floor of warm shallow seas near the equator.

The specimen was found in Northumberland.

It is from the Carboniferous period (362 - 290 million years ago)

Collected from: Northumberland

Period: Carboniferous (Early ?), Dinantian (?), Visean (?), Carboniferous Limestone (?)

Absoulute age: 327 - 342 my

Rock: Carboniferous Limestone (?)

Record Number: NEWHM:2004.H174