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Enigmatic fossil encrusting an Upper Ordovician rocky shore on Hudson Bay, Canada, is a coral

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2015

Robert J. Elias  and
Graham A. Young
Robert J. Elias
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences, The University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3T 2N2, Canada
Graham A. Young
Affiliation:
Manitoba Museum of Man and Nature, 190 Rupert Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3B 0N2, Canada
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Abstract

An enigmatic encruster from the Upper Ordovician rocky shore exposed near Churchill, Manitoba, was recently described by Johnson et al. (1998). The specimen was found attached to a quartzite boulder enclosed in carbonate matrix. The matlike, calcareous fossil consists of densely packed, vertical, cylindrical columns with upward-radiating structures issuing from their centers. It was identified as a new genus and species, Storeacolumnella hudsonensis, of uncertain taxonomic affinity but with possible characteristics of sponges and calcareous green algae. In particular, the radiating structures within columns were compared with spicules of a sclerosponge and with the siphon system of siphonous green algae.

Type
Paleontological Notes
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 74 , Issue 1 , January 2000 , pp. 179 - 180
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 2000

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