Aulopora macrostoma (Fischer)

Click on pictures to magnify

Discussion:

This very attractive specimen shows the basal (underside) surface of the
colony, where it attached to an object and shows a semi-regular branching
pattern of the corallites.

Viewer comments:

The yellowish and orange color is from small amounts of iron oxides staining
the rock and fossil. Look closely at the orange masses in the coral skeleton;
they are small concretionary growths of silica that have replaced the calcite
skeleton, in the growth form known as beekite rings. Beekite rings form as
a series of layers (shells) around a center point. When they occur in a thin
skeleton like this, they are seen as a small disk with concentric ridges. It is
a very distinctive feature. In the enlarged photo, it is possible to see white
colored rings in the skeleton that are uncolored beekite rings.

Tom Yancey

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