What is this?

How old is it?

Where did it come from?

Answers:

What is this?

This is an extinct kind of coral known as chain coral, or alternatively, Halisytes.

How old is it?

Chain coral emerged as a species sometime during the Ordovician period (about 480 million years ago), and went extinct by the end of the Devonian period (about 400 million years ago), during the Paleozoic era.

Where did it come from?

Chain corals. like contemporary corals, lived and grew on rocks and other surfaces underwater. This one was found in Missouri.

For more information, visit:

• This artifact in the Karshner Digital Collections
• Artifact Worksheets you can use in your classroom or for homeschool
• Halysites [Britannica]
• Are Corals Animals or Plants?
• Protecting Coral Reefs

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