5.9" Crinoid Plate With Five Crinoids - Crawfordsville, Indiana

Crinoid Plate With Five Crinoids - Crawfordsville, Indiana #104751

This is a 5.9" crinoid association from the Edwardsville Formation, Crawfordsville, Indiana, with four individual specimens present representing three different species. The other fossil on this plate is an unidentified coral fragment. This is a natural association and none of the specimens are composites. This fossil comes with an acrylic stand.

Identification by #:

#97- Undescribed inadunate
#23-Decadocrinus tumidulus
#52-Actinocrinites gibsoni

Crinoids from the Ramp Creek Limestone were likely buried in sediment from nearby deltas during storms. The resulting siltstone deposits are soft enough that fossils can be extracted in exquisite, three-dimensional relief.

Crinoids, sometimes commonly referred to as sea lilies, are animals, not plants. They are echinoderms related to starfish, sea urchins, and brittle stars. Many crinoid traits are like other members of their phylum. Such traits include tube feet, radial symmetry, a water vascular system, and appendages in multiples of five (pentameral). They first appeared in the Ordovician (488 million years ago) and some species are still alive today.

About Crinoids