Terrestrial Fossilized Coral Reef in Windley Key Florida

Terrestrial Fossilized Coral Reef in Windley Key Florida

Yesterday we ventured to the Windley Key fossil reef geologic state park that is located just past Islamorada in Key Largo. The state park was originally a quarry for limestone and was used to collect materials for the Flagler Railroad that connected the keys by train. Since the whole area is a fossil bed or coral the outcrops created by quarrying efforts a good cross section of the coral reef is exposed. The cross sections revealed the coral fossils including brain coral, branching coral, star coral, elk horn coral and others. The quarry had remains of old quarry equipment that was used for the extraction of the limestone.

A bicentennial core was on display in the visitor center of the park and the core dated back to the 1800’s showing the growth lines of the coral. Coral are like trees and create layers of growth that can be used for dating purposes.

Bicentennial Core

The horizontal lines in this picture of coral represents the growth lines in the fossilized coral. The coral in this picture is brain coral.

Since the coral is cut down the middle as a cross section it looks very different from what you would see if you were to be snorkeling or scuba diving on the reef when it was actually alive and submerged in water. The brain coral looks more like a sea fan that you would see in a living ocean reef because it cuts it directly down the middle. The trick is to look directly down the outline of the coral from the top, so it would be the same as if you were snorkeling above it. 

At the top of the coral wall that was extracted out lies a very thin layer of sediment where trees and other vegetation grow.  This area is known as the hardwood hammocks because of the highland location and the vegetation that grows there. Trees like mastic, sea grapes, wild lime, poison wood, mahogany and the gumbo limbo tree (tourist tree). The hardwood hammock areas are home to various flora and fauna unique only to that area and is located in a higher elevation landscape that has less water. This is where most birds and other land species get their food from the fruits of the plants that grow there.

The quarry now serves as an important ecosystem for flora and fauna of the keys.

Other Links:

Fossil Mangrove Reef of Key Biscayne, Florida

What Do the Fossil Reefs Tell Us?