Thick 6.6" Polished Fossil Coral Head - Morocco

This is a beautiful piece of fossil coral collected near Assa Zag, Morocco in the Western Sahara. It is Early Pennsylvanian in age, or approximately 320 million years old. The polishing shows off the beautiful inner structure of the coral colony beautifully. It looks very similar to the fossil coral "Petoskey stones" found in Michigan, though these are a different genus of coral.

The genus is Actinocyathus, a type of rugose coral. It had been previously identified as Hexagonaria from the Devonian, though that initial information appears to be incorrect. A paper on the fossil coral assemblage can be found at the link below:

Mississippian-like rugose corals from a Bashkirian biostrome in the Tindouf Basin, S. Morocco