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Best Finds: Echinoderms
Well, we did find great things! The next two pics are from the Echinoderm family, found
by Karen, is a Sea Star arm, from the Promopalaeaster family, according to
Jon Branstrator, a Sea Star Fossil researcher, who identified it on the spot.
Charlie found a beautiful Cystoid!
The strange part is, this is a Silurian cystoid named
Holocystites, according to our expert Dr. Colin Sumrall. Colin says they are
found in Indiana. Charlie washed the muddy fossil for me to photograph in a
puddle. But it already had cleaning marks on it, which I didn't notice until I
saw the photos I took. Mt. Orab is in the Ordovician Arnheim formation. Not
Silurian. Perhaps someone planted
it on the site so we would find some great fossils. Or maybe someone lost it
years ago while showing Dan Cooper his great fossil and left it on the site to
get covered with mud and found again after a good rain! Will we ever know? Email
me at billheim@cinci.rr.com
if you
have the answer.
Other Echinoderms found included this Pycnocrinus dyeri crinoid calyx
(head).
Another crinoid found was this holdfast. This crinoid had wrapped it's stem
around some large object, perhaps a clam. That's a bit unusual. They usually
wrap around other crinoid stems.
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