Heliolites

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Heliolites
Temporal range: Ordovician-Devonian
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Cnidaria
Subclass: Tabulata
Order: Heliolitida
Family: Heliolitidae
Genus: Heliolites
Dana, 1846

Heliolites is a large and heterogenous [1] genus of extinct tabulate corals in the family Heliolitidae. [2] Specimens have been found in Ordovician [3] to Devonian [4] beds in North America, [5] Europe, [4] Africa, [6] Asia, [7] and Australia. [3] The genus is particularly abundant in the Wellin Member of the Hanonet Formation of Belgium. [8]

Members of the genus are distinguished by a prominent tubular coenenchyme (the tissue linking neighboring polyps) with 14–17 tubules around each corallite (the stony cup in which each polyp sits.) [9]

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References

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  2. Young, Graham A.; Noble, James P. A. (January 1990). "Silurian Heliolitidae (Anthozoa, Tabulata) from the Chaleurs Bay region, Canada". Journal of Paleontology. 64 (1): 44–60. Bibcode:1990JPal...64...44Y. doi:10.1017/S0022336000042232. S2CID   132161964.
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  6. Königshof, Peter; Kershaw, Steve (May 2006). "Growth forms and palaeoenvironmental interpretation of stromatoporoids in a Middle Devonian reef, southern Morocco (west Sahara)". Facies. 52 (2): 299–306. doi:10.1007/s10347-005-0041-1. S2CID   129867978.
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  8. Król, Jan J.; Denayer, Julien; Wolniewicz, Paweł; Zapalski, Mikołaj K. (10 May 2021). "Heliolitid corals and their competitors: a case study from the Wellin patch reefs, Middle Devonian, Belgium". Lethaia. 54 (4): 540–557. doi:10.1111/let.12421. S2CID   236542393.
  9. Wang, G.; Percival, I.G.; Zhen, Y.Y.; Webby, B.D. (2021). "Late Ordovician Corals from Allochthonous Clasts in the Devonian Drik-Drik Formation of Northeastern New South Wales, Australia". Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales. 143: 74.