Extinct Plio-Pleistocene fossil coral FL Spetastrea marylandica

[tomclark]

Septastrea marylandica, a fossil coral from Pliocene-Pleistocene in FL. This extinct coral is somewhat unique in that it forms over and covers mollusc shells. These were found in landscaping material from mines.

[Scorpion68]

Those are awesome Tom and they be plenty old. Landscaping material - whoduh thunk it??

[Havenhunter]

Gorgeous!! Makes my fossil barnacles look hard ugly! Want to trade? Lol!!

[Bone2stone]

Now that's some cool corals there. Not a one would I pass up.

Tom, if it were not for Texas I would probably live in Florida.

[Tam]

Very nice Tom . I just love finding fossils . I only found them in Cal The hills are all sandstone .
get this my Dad had a fireplace made and the guy put s stone in the middle that was a backbone imprint in the stone .
good conversation piece .

[tomclark]

This was/is basically an untapped fossil resource around most of Florida. Landscaping supply companies where they have bins of rocks, sand, soil and FOSSIL MARINE SHELL from the shellpits 20 feet or more down...Miocene/Pliocene/Pleistocene...depends where they get their loads from. These, at the time, were from around Sarasota Co. They had two grades/sizes of fossil shell. Mixed in with the shells are plenty of pieces and whole fossil turtle shell, llama and tapir knuckles, teeth, vertebrae...from terrestrial and marine mammals and reptiles of the same period. They let you roam over the piles, picking out rare perfect specimens, just buy a few dollars worth in a bag (they supply lol) I haven't been in a few years......I gotta go soon. I wonder if landscaping companies in almost all states have shell like this from their area...check!