First for me. Sunflower Coral(sponge)

[Petrified]

I've been looking for this sponge fossil for quite a while.  This is the first one I've found.  Even though the name is sunflower Coral it is a sponge not a Coral.  

[Fossildude19]

Any idea what age this is? Nevermind - I see the tags mark it as Pennsylvanian/Carboniferous.

It's always best to put all information in the  body of the post.

Some sort of Fisherites/recaptaculid?

[FossilDAWG]

Nice find!   Could you provide a bit more detail about the geological context, such as formation and approximate locality?  I don't know that I have seen a Carboniferous recepticulitid before.

 

BTW these fossils have not been considered to be sponges for a long time.  There is debate about what group they actually belong to, with some evidence supporting assignment to the Dasycladales or green algae.  However the safest bet is probably to call them "uncertain affinity".  However, there are actually no features that are shared with sponges.

 

Don

[Petrified]

1 hour ago, Fossildude19 said:

Any idea what age this is? Nevermind - I see the tags mark it as Pennsylvanian/Carboniferous.

It's always best to put all information in the  body of the post.

Some sort of Fisherites/recaptaculid?

Sorry don't post on here as much as I used to in past.  Since I finally got some people helping me on petrified wood material it perked my mood to really search more.  

[Petrified]

1 hour ago, FossilDAWG said:

Nice find!   Could you provide a bit more detail about the geological context, such as formation and approximate locality?  I don't know that I have seen a Carboniferous recepticulitid before.

 

BTW these fossils have not been considered to be sponges for a long time.  There is debate about what group they actually belong to, with some evidence supporting assignment to the Dasycladales or green algae.  However the safest bet is probably to call them "uncertain affinity".  However, there are actually no features that are shared with sponges.

 

Don

High plateau of pa.