File:Favistina stellata (fossil coral) (Upper Ordovician; Pewee Valley, Kentucky, USA) 2 (35292194080).jpg

Favistina stellata (Hall, 1847) - fossil colonial coral from the Ordovician of Kentucky, USA. (FMNH PE57195, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, Illinois, USA)

The famous Cincinnatian Series of the tristate area of Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana has some of the richest fossiliferous rocks on Earth. Cincinnatian rocks were deposited in relatively shallow marine facies during the Late Ordovician. The Cincinnatian succession is mostly interbedded limestones and shales. Most of the limestones are event beds (= tempestites), deposited during ancient storms.

The weathered-out fossil shown above is a colonial rugose coral called Favistina. It lacks the obvious characteristics of a colonial rugose. In fact, it looks like a favositid coral ("honeycomb coral"), with small corallites and no visible septa. However, thin sections of Favistina do indeed show that the corallites are septate (e.g., see plate 1 of Jull, 1976).

Classification: Animalia, Cnidaria, Anthozoa, Rugosa, Stauriidae

Stratigraphy: unrecorded/undisclosed unit in the Cincinnatian Series, Upper Ordovician

Locality: unrecorded/undisclosed site at or near Pewee Valley, east of the Louisville urban area, northern Kentucky, USA

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