Lot 187A
North Africa, South Morocco, Upper Silurian, ca. 420 million years ago. A composite Scyphocrinus elegans crinoid fossil from the famous Silurian deposits of South Morocco. As is typical of most Moroccan crinoid slabs, this example has been assembled from multiple fragments and enhanced with red and black coloration to emphasize the fossil forms. The piece retains strong visual appeal - the central calyx and radiating arms creating an eye-catching, sculptural display that captures the beauty of ancient marine life. Comes with a steel display hanger. Size: 7.75" L x 5.75" W (19.7 cm x 14.6 cm)
Despite this plant-like appearance and name "sea lily," crinoids are sea creatures that are related to starfish and sea urchins. These crinoids are of the form that attached themselves to the sea floor using a long stalk or anchor, which you can see preserved in several of the examples here. In life, these crinoids had a mouth on their top surface surrounded by feeding arms, giving them a waving, moving effect even here, frozen in stone. Many species of crinoids continue to live today, but during the Silurian period, they were much more abundant - the Silurian saw an explosion of life in the sea, and these animals would have been vibrant parts of that newly diverse ecosystem, probably brightly colored if modern sea lilies are anything to go by. Complete star fish are a rare occurrence in the fossil record, due to their skeletal composition that separates during decomposition. Dating back to nearly a half a billion years ago during the Ordovician Period, this amazing natural group fossil presents a mass extinction event! During this era, about 100 times as many meteorites struck the Earth per year, compared with today, and 2 such collisions in the Devonian and Permian and caused the demise of many echinoderm species, but some crinoids and starfish survived and rapidly diversified in a short span of 60 million years!
Provenance: private Colorado, USA collection
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#197992
- Condition: Comes with a removable sturdy steel display hanger. Stone matrix is repaired from several large pieces and fossils are a composite from many crinoids.
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