Protarea

Classification
Phylum: Cnidaria
Class: Anthozoa
Subclass: Tabulata
Order: Heliolitida
Family: Coccoserididae
Genus: Protarea Milne-Edwards & Haime, 1851
Cincinnatian Species: Protarea richmondensis

Taxonomic Details

Alternate Spelling: Protaraea

Geologic Range
Middle Ordovician – Late Ordovician

Common Paleoecology
Protarea is an extinct genus of stationary epifaunal suspension feeders which have been interpreted to have hosted symbiotic algae in their tissues

Identification in Hand Sample:

Form as thin films or sheets, always encrusting another species of marine animal
Corallites (skeletons of single coral polyp) are closely spaced and polygonal with shallow calices.
Coenenchyme narrow to absent
Number of septa is usually 12

Geographic Occurrences

Published Description

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

Corallum of thin sheets, commonly encrusting; corallites close, coenenchyme narrow to absent, when present of closely contiguous thick trabeculae perpendicular to surface; septa 12, of contiguous trabeculae directed steeply upward and filling the lumen; tabulae absent.

McFarlan (1931):

Thin incrusting coralla. Corallites polygonal with shallow calices. Septa 12.

P. richmondensis