Horn Corals
(c) 2000 Andrew Alden, licensed to About.com, Inc. (fair use policy)
Horn corals are also known as solitary corals. They're the same kind of organism as the corals that build up coral reefs, but they live unattached on the seafloor. Corals are a very old group of organisms, originating in the Ordovician Period nearly 500 million years ago. These particular horn corals come from the Middle Devonian (397 to 385 million years ago) limestones of the Skaneateles Formation, in the classic geologic sections of the Finger Lakes country of upstate New York.
These horn corals were collected at Skaneateles Lake, near Syracuse, early in the 20th century by my great-aunt Lily Buchholz. She lived to the age of 100, but these are some 3 million times older than she was. Can anyone identify their species?
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