TABULATA (Ordivician through Permian)



    The tabulates (like the Rugosans) are also restricted to the Paleozoic.  The defining characteristics of the tabulates are their inconspicuous septa and well developed horizontal platforms.  They are very much unlike the Rugosans and Scleractinians.  The platform is recognized to be very flat and continuous.  The tabulates unlike the Rugosans and Scleractinians are only found in colonial settings.  The corallites of these large platforms are long straight and slender tubes.  in cross section they may be elliptical, circular, or polygonal.  It is not uncommon for the wall of the corallite tubes to have pores.  The septa are always short (if they are present at all) and spine like.  Tabulate corals are 300 genera that have been described.  They are found in most Middle Paleozoic rocks and are abundant and conspicuous.