Tabulate Corals

Tabulate corals are extinct animals. They are colonial marine invertebrates that attached to the sea floor. The colonies were made up of tubes called corallites and in each tube lived a tiny sea anenome like creature called a polyp that fed on plankton. The shape of the colony adapted to environmental conditions such as water turbulence, depth, and the material on the ocean floor. Many tabulate corals were important reef builders. The colony skeleton is made of calcite and so the fossils we see are white. 

About 300 species of tabulate corals have been described and they went extinct 252 million years ago during an extinction event known colloquially as the Great Dying as it was Earth’s most severe extinction event, killing 96% of all marine species and 70% of terrestrial species.

In this tour, we can see at least three types of tabulate coral:

• Chain coral which has a loose chain link fence like structure
• Honeycomb coral which has a more geometric structure
• Protrochiscolithus which is a dense white coral that often forms a crust on other shells

• Tyndall Stone Fossils
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