Receptaculites

Receptaculites

Receptaculites sp, commonly known as "sunflower coral" or fossil honeycomb coral; most sources mention it is neither a coral nor a sponge. The lifeform was probably a calcareous green algae that lived from the lower Ordovician to the Permian era. The 2002 "American Federation of Mineralogical Society's Approved Reference List of Classifications of Common Names of Fossils" notes that some paleontologists still classify Receptaculites sp. as a porifera (sponge).

It formed a double spiral radiating pattern of rhombus-shaped plates supported by spindle-like objects, called meroms, and grew on the seafloor. Fossils can usually be identified by the intersecting patterns of clockwise and counterclockwise rows of plates or stalk spaces. Receptaculites sp. fossils are found in two strata of rock layers in northern Illinois. They are also found in the Red River Formation (Ordovician) in the Williston Basin, with outcrops near Winnepeg, Canada. Large cantaloupe-sized specimens have been found in the dark, ultra-dense carbon-rich Ordovician Period "Panton Stone" limestone in Addison County, Vermont, USA. Believed to be a sea creature, this organism's structure has no known counter-part in living or fossil history.


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