Florida

= Florida- By Alicja (Lily) Fisher- Period 2. =

**Name of the Fossil**
 *//Cnidaria anthozoa//

**Description of the Organism**
 *This coral was actually composed by the remains of polyps, and their skeletons.  *Polyps are small ocean animals.  *They gather underwater on hard surfaces, and combine the lime in seawater (which is warm) with carbon dioxide; found in their bodies, which thus forms coral, or a hard lime-stone like texture.  *This process usually takes around 20-30 million years.

**Picture of the Fossil**
 

 **Time Existed**
 *This existed 30-40 million years ago.  *That time period was when Florida was part of the continental shelf.  *The oceans were filled with various different small organisms that contributed to the surfacing of coral.  *These oceans and seas were vast.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">**Preservation**
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> *The coral had been preserved because it was created by sea life. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> *The silica in the ocean water replaced the lime in the coral, producing quartz mineral which preserved the coral, and changed it to a chalcedony; which furthermore resulted in <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,Tahoma,sans-serif,'Times New Roman'; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">pseudomorph forming. ====<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,Tahoma,sans-serif,'Times New Roman'; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">**Who Found this Fossil/Why is it the State Fossil** ==== <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> *The founder of this fossil is not know, although these fossils can be found in the areas of Tampa Bay, the Econfina River, and the Withlacoochee/Suwannee River beds. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; text-align: left;"> *This is the state fossil because millions of years in the past florida used to be surrounded by vast oceans which harbored the polyps which produced these types of coral. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; text-align: left;"> *This fossil is recognized as being special because it went through a long process of pseudomorph, which exchanged the current minerals in it with ones inside the ocean and environment surrounding.

**Sources**
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 * Web marketing services. (2004-2011). Florida State Fossil. e-RefernceDesk. Retrieved from