일반명 ; 사방산호 화석 (Rugose Coral Fossil)

학  명 : Pachyphyllum woodmani

Geological Time: Devonian

Fossil Site: Lime Creek Formation, Rockford, Iowa

Genus  : Pachyphyllum (Pachyphyllum), Family  : Zaphrenticae (Zaphrenticae), Order  :  Rugosa (Rugosa)

군체로 보이지만 단체(單體)이며 껍데기의 표면에 주름이 있어 추피산호류라고도 한다. 실루리아기 바다에서 출현하여 고생대 말에 절멸한 표준화석의 하나이다. 각체의 내부에는 세로격벽 이 발달되어 있기 때문에 각체를 평형단면으로 절단하여 개체발생의 상태를 조사하면 선조형, 자손형 및 각 종속간의 상호관계를 알 수 있다. 대부분 석탄기에서 페름기에 걸쳐 출토된다. 아주 재미있는 화석이다.

 

The Rugosa Rose is also sometimes just called "Rugosa". For the moon in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, see Rugosa on Wookieepedia: a Star Wars Wiki

The Rugosa, also called the Tetracoralla, are an extinct order of coral that were abundant in Middle Ordovician to Late Permian seas.

Solitary rugosans (e.g., Caninia, Lophophyllidium, Neozaphrentis, Streptelasma) are often referred to as horn corals because of a unique horn-shaped chamber with a wrinkled, or rugose, wall. Some solitary rugosans reached nearly a meter in length. However, some species of rugose corals could form large colonies (e.g., Lithostrotion). When radiating septa were present, they were usually in multiples of four.

Rugose corals have a skeleton made of calcite that is often fossilized. Like modern corals (Scleractinia), rugose corals were invariably benthic, living on the sea floor or in a reef-framework. Although there is no direct proof, it is inferred that these Palaeozoic corals possessed stinging cells to capture prey. They also had tentacles to help them catch prey. Technically they were carnivores, but prey-size was so small they are often referred to as microcarnivores.