The Lisburne Group of arctic Alaska contains coral faunas of Osagian (Early Mississippian) to Atokan (Middle Pennsylvanian) age. Beds of Osagian age have a small fauna of solitary and tabulate corals. Beds of Meramecian and very earliest Chesterian ages contain a large fauna of Ekvasophyllum spp., Faberophyllum spp., Diphyphyllum klawockensis Armstrong, D. nasorakensis Armstrong, Lithostrotion (Siphonodendron) dutroi Armstrong, L. (S.) sinuosum (Kelly), L. (S.) warreni Nelson, L. (S.) lisburnensis Armstrong, Lithostrotion reiseri Armstrong, Lithostrotionella niakensis Armstrong, L. banffensis (Warren), L. mclareni (Sutherland), L. birdi Armstrong, L. pennsylvanica (Shimer), Thysanophyllum astraeiforme (Warren), T. orientale Thomson, Sciophyllum lambarti Harker and McLaren and S. alaskaensis Armstrong. Corals are rare in beds of younger Chesterian age; they include Lithostrotionella aff. L. mclareni (Sutherland), Lithostrotion (S.) ignekensis Armstrong, Syringopora spp., and a few solitary corals. Pennsylvanian (Atokan) beds of the Lisburne Group contain Lithostrotionella wahooensis Armstrong, Corwenia jagoensis Armstrong, a thick-welled syringoporoid, and Michelinia sp.

The Lisburne Group limestones are cyclic and were deposited on a slowly subsiding carbonate platform. Colonial corals of Meramecian and Atokan ages are present in carbonate rocks associated with shallow-water shoaling facies. The scarcity of corals in carbonate rocks of Osagian, Chesterian, and Morrowan ages is attributed to regional temperature or salinity changes that inhibited their growth. Beds of Atokan age contain more calcareous algae and Foraminifera, indicating warmer waters. Paleoecologic analysis of the carbonate beds associated with the colonial corals of Atokan age indicates that the corals lived in clear, agitated water between oolitic tidal flats. Carboniferous corals are not known to have formed reef-like masses in arctic Alaska.

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