Tabulata

Classification
Phylum: Cnidaria
Class: Anthozoa
Subclass: Tabulata (Milne-Edwards and Haime, 1850)
Cincinnatian Families: Billingsariidae, Sryingophyllidae, Coccoserididae

Geologic Range
Ordovician – Permian

Common Paleoecology
Tabulata is an extinct subclass of photosymbiotic, stationary, epifaunal suspension feeders

Characteristics of the Class

• Compound corallum with slender corallites
• Short septa
• Commonly a radial longitudinal series of spines
• Generally complete tabulae, sometimes funnel-shaped

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Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, Part F, 2 of 2 (1981):

• Corallum compound, with very slender corallites; septa short, equal, in many genera and in all Heliolitina and Halysitina 12 in number, each commonly a radial longitudinal series of spines; walls with pores in many suborders; tabulae commonly complete, funnel-shaped in some; coenenchyme may separate the tabularia in Heliolitina and Halysitina; microstructure of tufts of microfibers, their axes perpendicular to lower and upper surfaces of growth lamellae; in septal spines the tufts may be aggregated into monacanthine trabeculae; increase lateral (or intermural), peripheral coenenchymal, or axial and bipartite or quadripartite; in extensiform coralla offsets are more numerous in basal planes than in upright parts.

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Cincinnatian Orders
Sarcinulida (Sakolov, 1950)is an extinct order of stationary epifaunal suspension feeders which have been interpreted to have hosted symbiotic algae in their tissues

• Tabularia communicating by rounded interseptal spaces or connecting canals on coenenchymal platforms
• Short septa and short basally
• Tabulae horizontal
• Cincinnatian families within this order include Billingsariidae and Syringophyllidae

Heliolitida (Frech, 1897) is an extinct order of stationary epifaunal suspension feeders which have been interpreted to have hosted symbiotic algae in their tissues

• Exclusively colonial, slender corallites separated by extensive coenosteum.
• Spinose or laminar septa, commonly numbering 12.
• Heliolitids can be distinguished from tabulates by the lack of pores or connecting tubes between adjacent corralites.
• Coralla may be laminar to massive, lenticular, hemispherical, or erect branching.
• Cincinnatian families within this order include Coccoserididae