Fossil ID?

Identification of fossil. Found this on a power line road near Hidden Lake park in Leroy. It's a piece of the limestone gravel that caught my eye. I'm guessing the gravel came from northwest Ohio where most of the limestone quarries are. Is it a species of tabulate coral? That's the closest I could find online.

That’s a great photo!

One of the great things about taking a walk on a crushed-stone trail is that you might come across traces of ancient life just below your feet — and since the quarries of western Ohio produce huge amounts of construction-aggregate stone, there’s a good chance that your stone was quarried nearby. (Not to brag, but Ohio ranked 5th in the U.S.A. for crushed-limestone production in 2023!)

[Map of Ohio limestone production by county, via ODNR]

Also, great work narrowing your fossil down to one of the honeycomb-like tabulate coral fossils! Here’s a link to a great summary article about these cool, extinct sea creatures from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

If you want to read more about them, here are two handy resources:

• The book “Ohio’s Geology in Core and Outcrop” offers a superb description of the ancient environments where Ohio limestones were deposited, as well as some excellent photos from quarrying operations.
• The book “Fossils Of Ohio” covers tabulate corals of the Ordovician, Silurian and Devonian on pages 78-83; however, the identification photos are a bit grainy in this older book.

Thanks for sharing!

-Naturalist Chris Mentrek