Brittle Star (Sinosura) Mass Mortality - Solnhofen Limestone

This is a spectacular, mass mortality plate of Jurassic aged brittle stars (Sinosura kelheimense) from the famed Solnhofen Limestone of Germany. These brittle stars are less common than Ophiopetra lithographica which are more often seen for sale.

There are probably around 100 brittle stars preserved on a 6x4" piece of matrix, the largest one having an arm span around 1". The preservation is very nice on this piece and the fossils do no have any enhancement. While it's not unusual to get pieces with several brittle stars preserved on the same piece of rock, mass mortality plates of this density are rare. It comes with an acrylic display stand.

The Solnhofen limestones is a famous Lagerstätte in Germany that offer amazing preservation of Upper Jurassic fossils. It is where one of the most famous fossils of all time, Archaeopteryx was found. The fine grained limestone makes excellent building materials which has led to heavy quarrying over the past two centuries, which has resulted in some amazing fossils being unearthed.

This area represented an archipelago at the edge of a sea. Due to high salt content, the lowest levels in the water column could not support much life and was devoid of oxygen. This lack of scavengers on the bottom of the sea led to amazing preservation of the fauna found there.