.	Dwarves' Earth Treasures Museum: Tampa Bay Agatized Coral Fossls Beaches of Tampa bay, Florida	.

    The corals and sponges of Miocene (30 million years ago) died and got buried by the sediments. Eventually, the sediments hardened and the coral bodies decomposed away leaving behind the molds (coral-shaped cavities). One time, the Gulf of Mexico sea got so saturated with silica that excess silica ended up being deposited in the coral-shaped molds a layer by layer, hence "agatized fossils". The agatized corals demonstrated the fact that the agates were formed from cool solutions not hydrothermal(hot) solutionsas widely believed.
    The agatized corals come in great variety of sizes and shapes, and brown, gray and tan are most common colors. Black and red colors are quite desirable. It appears that quartz crystals are somewhat rare (I cut many agatized coral roughs and very few have quartz crystals at all). The Tampa bay Agatized Corals are supposedly no longer available due to the sources becoming "No Trespassing!" private properties as well as urban spawning but I'm still seeing some vendors bringing in all of those agatized corals at Tuscon shows. YOU CAN CLICK ON THE PICTURES TO SEE LARGER PICTURES Rough Appearance: Tan coral-like forms, in either ocean-worn or rough forms
Agates are generally thin in most specimens, commonly white, gray, & brown, sometimes with black, white, orange and red.
Coral forms with agate lining are dead giveaways.

My favorite!	How rare is red color?	Coated with druzy quartz crystals
Shows strong banding when fluorescing under UV light!	With sparkling quartz geode centers
Coated with druzy quartz crystals	This is why we call them "Agatized Corals" not "Chalcedonized Corals".	With banded agate rims
A full coral/sponge head cut in half		My first specimen.