the fossils
bryozoan
lacy colony · pores too fine to count
The tell
Lacy. Fine net, twig or fan shapes riddled with holes far too small to be coral cells.
Bryozoans are still around, but not these ones. The gelatinous blobs in the lakes are freshwater bryozoans that build no hard skeleton at all. The Michigan fossils are marine bryozoans, a different class entirely, from a sea that covered the state 385 million years ago.
The size rule sorts out the whole family: coral cells are big enough to count by eye, bryozoan pores read as pinpricks, and a stromatoporoid has neither, only layers.
What it gets mistaken for
- cladopora
- syringopora
- crinoid
- charlevoix
- sponge
- coral
The facts
- also calledlacy colony · marine cousins still live today
- age~385 million yrs
- where it turns upDevonian shores · statewide in gravel
- the field markpores too fine to count without a loupe
10% of every order goes to northern Michigan animal shelters.