Phylum Cnidaria
Phylum Cnidaria
Cnidarians are soft-bodied animals that include corals, jellyfish, and sea anemones. These soft-bodied animals have saclike digestive cavities and tentacles containing rows or stinging cells used for defense and capture of food. Many secrete calcium carbonate to support and partly enclose the soft parts; the most familiar of these are corals. The only members of the phylum found at the Canal are solitary corals. One of these corals, Micrabacia, may be the most common fossil found. Another common fossil found there, a solitary horn-shaped coral, has been given different names by different authors.
5. Micrabacia hilgardi - specimen from the Mount Laurel dredge spoils
Cretaceous Cnidaria photograph from Plate 1, DGS Special Publication No. 18, by E. M. Lauginiger, 1988.
- Micrabacia hilgardi - occurs in the Mount Laurel Formation
- Solitary horn-shaped coral - occurs in the Mount Laurel Formation
Cretaceous Cnidaria illustrations from Figure 5, DGS Special Publication No. 18, by E. M. Lauginiger, 1988.