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Tabulata


Like the rugose corals, the tabulate corals are entirely Palaeozoic and are similar in range. They occur as colonial forms only, and usuallly have small corallites. There are generally no septae, or they are very small; the construction is simpler than in other coral orders.

Some examples of the rich fossil history of the tabulate corals can be seen by clicking on the thumbnails below, photographed from the Bristol University teaching collection:

Halysites catenulatus (Gladisch)

Wenlock Limestone, Silurian, Wenlock.

Halysites: Ordovician - Silurian, almost worldwide.

Syringipora

Carboniferous, near Dublin

Thamnopora cervicornis (de Blainville)

Torquay Limestone, M. Devonian, South Devon.

Thamnopora: Silurian - Permian, Worldwide

Author: Ben Kotrc
Last updated: 21 November 2005
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Websites produced by students on the MSc Palaeobiology programme in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol for academic year 2005-6