COR121 - ULTRA-RARE LARGE "ICE CAVE" COMPLETE FOSSIL CORAL COLONY GEODE WITH LARGE QUARTZ CRYSTALS LINING CAVITY

Product Description

ITEM # 

COR121

ID

Crystallized coral colony geode

FOUND

Withlacoochee River - Central Florida, USA

AGE

OLIGOCENE:  38 million years ago

SIZE

7.65" x 6.75" x 3" deep, each half

CONDITION

100% GENUINE, NO REPAIR OR RESTORATION

NOTE

ONE OF THOUSANDS OF ORDINARY CORAL GEODES
ONCE COLLECTED AT THIS SITE - THIS SPECIMEN WAS THE SINGLE, 
MOST DRAMATICALLY CRYSTALLIZED, TRANSLUCENT EXAMPLE

INCLUDES STAND - Actual Item - One Only

Comes with a certificate of authenticity / information sheet

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT CORAL FOSSILS

Agatized fossil coral is highly prized by not only fossil collectors, but by gem and mineral collectors, as well.  Exquisite forms from Florida are especially in demand as the state produces some of the finest examples of this geological oddity in the entire world.  The majority of agatized coral that is collected is either solid inside when sliced or it possesses a drab and rather uninteresting structure to its internal cavity.  This remarkable specimen is VERY rare and far exceeds the beauty, color and internal crystalline structures of most agatized coral pieces that are found. 

With a direct connection to the best and largest source of this material, we have offered the finest examples of this deposit seen anywhere but over the history of that period, very, very few have been white crystal quartz specimens.   The source is now finished and NO new material like this can be found.  This piece dates back to when we first were collecting these geodes and this specimen was so rare and unusual that we kept it for ourselves all this time.  It is the ONLY ONE we have ever seen to have such dramatically formed ice-like quartz micro-crystals, be transparent and be so large - AND TO BE A FULL GEODE SAWN AND POLISHED WITH BOTH HALVES.  As we don't really personally collect fossils, it's time to finally let it go and have it adorn the collection of another individual. 

The specimen is a one-in-a-million piece!  It is extremely unusual and rare for agatized fossil coral because beyond becoming agatized, the former prehistoric coral colony has been turned to a micro-lined geode of QUARTZ crystals!   Immeasurably RARE!  Agatized coral geodes are usually filled with chalcedony or agate which is a form of quartz but on very, very rare occurrences, the geode can fill with PURE CLEAR quartz.  This gives the fossilized coral colony the appearance it is filled with ice!   Absolutely NO ENHANCEMENT, NO DYEING, NO REPAIR and NO RESTORATION. 

Agate, also known as chalcedony, is a type of cryptocrystalline quartz (SiO2).  Under unique geological conditions, prehistoric corals and mollusks can fossilize by being replaced with agate from silica-rich ground water percolating through limestone.   The Florida Legislature designated agatized coral as the Florida State Stone in 1979.  The statute describes it as “a chalcedony pseudomorph after coral, appearing as limestone geodes lined with botryoidal agate or quartz crystals and drusy quartz fingers, indigenous to Florida."  Agatized coral occurs in a variety of colors, typically gray, brown, black, yellow, white, and on rare occasion red.  The majority of Florida’s agatized coral formed in Oligocene-Miocene Hawthorn Group sediments.  Fossil agatized coral is occasionally dredged up in the Tampa and Clearwater areas but also occurs in limestones along the Econfina, Withlachoochee and Suwannee Rivers.

Fossil corals were simple marine invertebrates that possessed a sac-like body called a polyp with a mouth and tentacles.  As carnivores, they would immobilize or kill their prey with their stinging tentacles then swallow their prey and later expel the wastes through the same mouth.  They formed a dense outer skeleton of calcium carbonate which, when living in large colonies of thousands of cloned individuals, formed a massive structure.  The complex folds in their stomach cavity can be seen in the wondrous detail left behind in their skeletons.  Modern corals today share a symbiotic relationship with algae that covers their body tissue.  The algae supplement the coral with oxygen which most likely was the case in prehistoric times, as well.

Prehistoric corals are believed to have thrived in the same environments that modern corals prefer - clean, warm oceans of normal salinity levels.  Solitary corals were present in oceans of soft, muddy bottoms while horn corals and colonial corals preferred hard sea floors to attach themselves.