File:Parastraea sp. (fossil scleractinian coral) (Cretaceous; Germany) (34974286563).jpg

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Parastraea sp. - fossil scleractinian coral from the Cretaceous of Germany. (FMNH PE60265, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, Illinois, USA)

Scleractinians are significant reef-building organisms in Earth's warm, shallow oceans. They first appear in the Triassic and are the only group of stony corals in modern oceans (in the Paleozoic, tabulates and rugosans were the principal stony coral groups). Scleractinian corals consist of individuals or colonies of gelatinous polyps that secrete hard calcareous (CaCO3) skeletons. Most live in warm, tropical to subtropical, photic zone environments (the shallow portions of the world’s oceans where sunlight penetrates). Scleractinian corals are predators - they have stinging cells (nematocysts) in their tentacles that paralyze prey. They also obtain sustenance from microbes called zooxanthellae (usually dinoflagellates) that live in their tissues and need to be in sunlight to manufacture food by photosynthesis. The food is shared with the host coral animal.

I haven't verified the correct spelling of the genus name for the fossil shown above - "Parastraea" or "Parastrea". In either case, the name may be misattributed.

Classification: Animalia, Cnidaria, Anthozoa, Scleractinia

Stratigraphy: unrecorded/undisclosed Cretaceous unit

Locality: unrecorded/undisclosed site in Germany
Date
Source Parastraea sp. (fossil scleractinian coral) (Cretaceous; Germany)
Author James St. John

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This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
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This image was originally posted to Flickr by James St. John at https://flickr.com/photos/47445767@N05/34974286563 (archive). It was reviewed on 1 December 2019 by FlickreviewR 2 and was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the cc-by-2.0.

1 December 2019

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current09:02, 1 December 2019Thumbnail for version as of 09:02, 1 December 20191,830 × 1,404 (2.31 MB)Ser Amantio di Nicolao (talk | contribs)Transferred from Flickr via #flickr2commons

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