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horn coral
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Rugose coral Illustration of an early Silurian coral-stromatoporoid community showing various labeled marine organisms, including corals, bryozoans, brachiopods, crinoids, trilobites, and a nautiloid, arranged on and around a block of seafloor substrate with a scale bar indicating centimeters. Silurian Pentamerus community
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Rugose coral
Rugose coral A sample of Grewingkia canadensis, a type of rugose coral from southeastern Indiana dating to the Ordovician Period.

horn coral

fossil coral
Also known as: Rugosa, rugose coral
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History

horn coral, any coral of the order Rugosa, which first appeared in the geologic record during the Ordovician Period, which began 488 million years ago; the Rugosa persisted through the Permian Period, which ended 251 million years ago. Horn corals, which are named for the hornlike shape of the individual structures built by the coral animal, were either solitary or colonial forms. Of the many forms known, some are important as index, or guide, fossils for specific spans of geologic time and serve to correlate sometimes widely separated rock units. Because of their mode of growth, some horn corals have been employed as biological clocks to determine the length of the day and year in the distant geologic past.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen.