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Description: | Specimen of a fossil coral, a Chain coral, Halysites sp., collected from unspecified rocks of Silurian age. Collected by N.C. Cookson.
Halysites is also known as the 'chain coral' because it looks a bit like a piece of chain. It was a colonial coral (meaning that it lived with lots of other corals in a colony). It is now extinct. Colonial corals had a hard structure made of the mineral calcite. Each tiny coral animal, also known as a polyp, lived in one tube-like section of the structure. When alive they looked a bit like sea anemones. Halysites usually lived on a reef, (a ridge teeming with life, close to the coast).
It is from the Silurian period (443 - 418 million years ago) | Publisher: | Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums | Subjects: | Anthozoa Coelenterata Classification: Animalia Invertebrata Cookson N.C. | Temporal: | Silurian period (443 - 418 million years ago) | Source: | Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums | Identifier: | http://www.twmuseums.org.uk/geofinder/se... | Go to resource |
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