Rugosa

Classification
Phylum: Cnidaria
Class: Anthozoa
Subclass: Rugosa (Milne-Edwards and Haime, 1850)
Cincinnatian Family: Streptelasmatidae

Geologic Range
Middle Ordovician – Late Permian

Common Paleoecology
Rugosa is an extinct subclass of stationary, epifaunal, suspension feeders.

Characteristics of the subclass

  • Highly distinctive, conical shape
  • Septa present
  • Bilaterally symmetrical
  • Generally solitary

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Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, Part F, 1 of 2 (1981):

  • Solitary or compound epithecate corals with septa typically in two orders alternating in length but in some with three or four orders; symmetry bilateral; in solitary corallites, and in many offsets, with metasepta inserted in four positions only, on the counter side of each alar septum and on each side of the cardinal septum. A marginarium, consisting of a dissepimentarium or a peripheral sterozone formed by thickening of the septa, may be developed around the tabularium in the zone of minor septa. Tabulae may be conical, domed, horizontal, sagging (in some with a median trough), or inversely conical; each tabula may be complete, consisting of one plate, or incomplete, consisting of a number of tabellae. An axial structure may develop.

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Cincinnatian Order
Stauriida (Verrill, 1865) is an extinct order stationary epifaunal suspension feeders

  • Fasciculate or cerioid with marginarium a narrow stereozone and in some with sporadic elongate dissepiments
  • Septa laminar, not lobed or acanthine axially
  • Tabulae commonly complete
  • Cincinnatian families within this order include Streptelasmatidae

Streptelasmatidae