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.