Tabulata

Tabulata, a term once used as name for a group of corals characterized by the fact that the body chambers or "loculi" are crossed by horizontal plates known as tabulae. These are most common in the corals of Palaeozoic rocks. It is now, however, known that these tabulae are merely supporting structures developed quite independently in different groups of corals in which the soft parts of the animal require some support below. The old group of Tabulata is therefore split up. Some, such as the living Blue Coral, or Heliopora, and Halysites, or the Chain Coral, are assigned to be Alcyonaria; others, such as the fossil Favosites, to the Perforata (q.v.), while the majority, including the Cyathophylloidea, Zaphrentoidea, and Cystiphylloidea, go to the Aporosa.