
Rugosa
Sign in to saveAlso known as Tetracorallia, Tetracoralla
The Rugosa (rugose corals) are an extinct class of solitary or colonial corals that were abundant in Middle Ordovician to Late Permian seas.
~13 min read
Encyclopedic overview
15 sectionsContents
- Morphology
- Septa
- Tabulae and dissepiments
- Axial structures
- Epitheca
- Colony forms
- Taxonomy
- Evolutionary history
- Ordovician
- Silurian
- Devonian
- Carboniferous-Permian
- Gallery
- References
- External links
The Rugosa (rugose corals) are an extinct class of solitary or colonial corals 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 their unique horn-shaped skeleton with a wrinkled, or rugose, wall. Some solitary rugosans reached nearly a meter (3 ft 3 in) in length. However, some species of rugose corals could form large colonies (e.g., Lithostrotion).
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Rugosa” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.