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I’m trying to identify this fossil. I found it at Stratford Hall in Montross, Virginia. It looks like images I have found of horn coral but it was my understanding that fossils from Stratford Hall were from the Miocene. The images I have found of horn coral have been Devonian. Did horn coral exist in the Miocene? Any help would be appreciated.
Linda
@linda-lewis Yup, that’s a horn coral all right. Horn corals only lived through the Permian. I am not familiar with the locality where you found this but based upon condition, I would say it has been transported by water and/or glacial movement. Your Miocene site must be “downstream” from Paleozoic strata.
Jack Kallmeyer
That’s interesting. @jkallmeyer is correct about this fossil being out of place at Stratford. It’s pretty uncommon, but sometimes along the Calvert Cliffs you can find channel deposits from ancient rivers that carried in some Paleozoic material from elsewhere in the state. So it’s certainly possible the same is true at Stratford.
@jnance have you ever seen Paleozoic fossils at Stratford?@linda-lewis, @vperez Here in the Cincinnatian we often see glacially or stream transported fossils of younger ages . Fossils that are found in streams are always suspect as to exact origin as they could be newly exposed and “local” or transported and “alien”. Usually the transported ones are heavily worn like your horn coral but not always. Surprisingly, one of our members found a perfect Phacops trilobite in matrix that had been transported all the way from Toledo in the northwest part of the state.
Jack
@jkallmeyer, @vperez Thanks for the help and information. It’s great to be able to put a name and time frame to the fossil.
Linda
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