Need help with Orthocone sculpture

[modelnut]

OK. Here is CC's picture with labels.

Taking Endoceras for our scale I can estimate apparent sizes. If this Endoceras is 13 feet long then it is about 2 feet in girth.

The "brain" corals look to be almost 4 feet in diameter. And the horn corals appear to have foot-long horns. The crinoids look to be between 3 and 4 feet tall. And the brachiopods (clams) seem to be about a foot in length.

In 35th scale that translates to 0.87cm for the horn coral, 3.5cm for the "brain" coral, 2.5 to 4cm for the sea weeds and crinoids. 1cm for the bivalves (this seems a bit large to me.)

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But how big were horn corals???

"Some solitary rugosans reached nearly a meter in length. " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rugosa (That would be about 3cm in 35th scale.)

"The largest colonial rugose coral on the Indiana shore (directly below the Interpretive Center) is a Prismatophyllum colony 11 feet (3.3 m) across. A 30 foot (10 m) colony is reported on the Kentucky side!" http://www.fallsoftheohio.org/DevonianCorals.html (Hmmm. That would be 8.6 to 28.6cm across!)

GOOD NEWS! According to this article table corals existed! I don't have to remove what is there already.

According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordovician though solitary corals were common, reef colonies developed during the Ordovician. And there are images available through this same site of the types of algae that existed at the time.

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Why didn't my earlier searches come up with this stuff ???

Oh well. Back to the Man Cave!

- Leelan

[modelnut]

I like this one. It isn't too busy. I will try to capture the feel of it for my base.

- Leelan

[Architeuthoceras]

Coral is first seen in Cambrian rocks, however it is uncommon until the later part of the Ordovician (Evo of Coral on Wiki). Where I find Enocerids, in the Lower and Lower Middle Ordovician rocks, I don't find any coral at all. There is coral in rocks above those I find them in, but not down where all the cephs are. Terri finds Horn Coral and a few small pieces of Tabulate Coral in her Upper Middle and Lower Upper Ordovician rocks in Tennessee. These are the rocks that Cameroceras is found in, so I would say there are very few corals.
Most reefs in these rocks were formed of sponges, stromatoporoids, and a sponge/algal critter Calathium (a fairly fruitless image search), however finding reconstructions of these may prove difficult.

Maybe I am seeing too much of my own collections in your model, but that is my .

[modelnut]

Thanks, AT,

I will bear that in mind. I hadn't planned on building a teeming coral reef. That would be too busy. Just a little more and I will cry "Enough!"

- Leelan

[Cuddlycuttlefsh]

You should quote that post above, lol.

[modelnut]

Here is my attempt at horn coral.

I cut quarter-size circles out of index card and rolled them into cones. Then I filled the cones with putty, cut little bits of floral wire, ten per coral, and, one by one, stuck the arms in. Talk about fiddly.

I will see what they look like with paint tomorrow afternoon. Then all the base will need is a sprinkling of algae and it will be done.

- Leelan

[Cuddlycuttlefsh]

Urgh... The building tension on how this sculpture is going to turn out is making me want to drive into a wall.

[modelnut]

Sorry, CC,

I've been a little distracted. I will take more pictures tomorrow. She is a - l - m - o - s - t finished.

- Leelan