FOSSIL CRINOID - 410 million years old - Morocco

FOSSIL CRINOID

410 million years old

Scyphocrinites elegans

Erfoud, Tafilalt, Morocco

A beautifully preserved crinoid from the late Silurian period. It is part of a ‘mass mortality’ bed from the Atlas Mountains of Morocco where countless crinoids are found together. They are mined by local collectors who access the fossils via vertical shafts. They are usually collected in fragments and reassembled to make fine display fossils.

Crinoids (also called sea lilies) look like plants but they are marine animals related to starfish and sea urchins. Most species were attached to the seafloor by a stalk but some were free-swimming. The mouth was surrounded by numerous feeding arms. They are still living today but were much more numerous in the prehistoric past.

This fossil is presented in a foam-lined gift box with lid, and an acrylic stand.