Heliolites
Genus of coral
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Heliolites is a large and heterogenous[2] genus of extinct tabulate corals in the family Heliolitidae.[3] Specimens have been found in Ordovician[4] to Devonian[5] beds in North America,[6] Europe,[5] Africa,[7] Asia,[8] and Australia.[4] The genus is particularly abundant in the Wellin Member of the Hanonet Formation of Belgium.[9]
| Heliolites Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Cnidaria |
| Subphylum: | Anthozoa |
| Class: | †Tabulata |
| Order: | †Heliolitida |
| Family: | †Heliolitidae |
| Genus: | †Heliolites Dana, 1846[1] |
Members of the genus are distinguished by a prominent tubular coenenchyme (the tissue linking neighboring polyps) with 14–17 tubules around each corallite (the stony cup in which each polyp sits.)[10]
