Conularia

Classification
Phylum: Cnidaria
Class: Scyphozoa
Order: Conulariida
Family: Conulariidae
Genus: Conularia Sowerby, 1821
Cincinnatian Species: Conularia formosa
Taxonomic Details
Geologic Range
Late Cambrian – Permian
Common Paleoecology
Conularia is an extinct genus of stationary epifaunal suspension feeders
Identification in Hand Sample:
- Ridges are closely spaced, continue across the midline of each face
- Crests present between the ridges
- Traverse ribs well defined
- Ribs finely tuberculate, with interspaces crossed by striae
- Facial mid-line not marked surficially by groove or ridge
Geographic Occurrences
Published Description
Fossils of Ohio (1996):
- The exoskeleton of Conularia Sowerby can be up to 30 cm in length. Ridges are closely spaced and commonly look as though they continue across the midline of each face rather than being significantly offset. Crests are present between the ridges. Conularia is present in the Cincinnatian Series (Upper Ordovician) of southwestern Ohio. Rare specimens are known from Silurian and Devonian rocks. The genus is common at some localities in the Meadville and Wooster Members of Cuyahoga Formation (Mississippian) in northeastern Ohio and in the Byer Sandstone Member of the Logan Formation (Mississippian) in southern Ohio. Some specimens from the Cuyahoga Formation reach 30 cm in length and are among the largest conulariids known from anywhere in the world.
Babcock, Gray, Boucot, Himes, & Siegele (1980):
- Conulariids with rods that are generally closely spaced, usually 9-84 per cm; fewer than 60 percent alternate at midline; more than 40 percent abut; two adjacent rods on a face form a single arc across face; apical angles small, usually 6-23 degrees; nodes, adapertural spines, and adapical spines usually present, closely spaced, usually 1-10/mm.
Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, Part F (1956):
- Transverse ribs well defined, closely spaced, finely tuberculate, with interspaces crossed by bars or striae; facial mid-line not marked surficially by groove or ridge nor produced internally as septal ridge.