An intricate Silurian stromatoporoid reef on the island of Saaremaa, Estonia

KURESSAARE, ESTONIA–Stromatoporoids are extinct calcareous sponges that were very common in shallow water environments of the Silurian. They are especially abundant in the middle Silurian of the Baltic Region. Today we visited a site called Katri Cliff where a reef composed of stromatoporoids is exposed. Olev Vinn is shown above studying them (with the inevitable remains of a Soviet coastal border guard post in the background).

Stromatoporoids made hard, dense skeletons of calcite, sequentially adding layers to them like onions. At Katri Cliff we found many examples of these sponges with rugose corals and tabulate corals embedded inside them. Apparently the sponge grew up around the coral skeletons, immuring them alive. The interesting question is whether the sponges and the corals had a mutual beneficial relationship or if they were actually competing for resources like space and food.
Stromatoporoid showing conical rugose corals in its skeleton.
Stromatoporoid broken in half and revealing an embedded tabulate coral.

We have placed this ancient reef on the list of possible projects for Rachel, but we won’t know what she is going to pursue until we visit the nearby island of Hiiumaa at the end of the week.

And in case you’re tired of so many fossils and seascapes in this blog, here’s another bit of history we saw today: Below are trenches built at the top of Ninase Cliff. The tragedy of 20th Century Estonian history is that we can’t immediately tell who dug these trenches. Was it Imperial Russians in 1917 defending against the invasion of Imperial Germans? Could they have been built by Soviets against the invading Nazis in 1941? Or maybe Nazis in 1944 fighting the re-invading Soviets? There is some satisfaction on this part of the coast to observe that the sea is slowly eroding these trenches back into the ancient limestone gravel from which they briefly appeared.