Crinoids! - I’ve never seen a full one

[alastairgott]

A picture of a full crinoid near the bottom of this article, what an alien!

'Smiling' fossil discovered in Northumberland

The unusual looking fossil is estimated to be a few hundred million years old dating to the Carboniferous period.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Leclused]

an example from a museum in Holland

Source : Crinoid

 

[Lankyman]

what an alien!

It's exactly the kind of 'evidence' to get the Ancient Alien conspiracy theorists all hot and bothered.

 

[Lankyman]

an example from a museum in Holland

Source : Crinoid

View attachment 25269

I've seen crinoids all over the North Pennines and in Dentdale. 'Dent Marble' is a very attractive stone full of crinoids

Dent Marble - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I think what I have seen are the segmented stems. Were those wavy, frond things at the top solid as well or is the preservation of that fossil just very remarkable?

 

[mikem]

The fronds are soft tissue so required more luck for preservation (although being buried alive might not be described as lucky!)

 

[Pitlamp]

There very some very good ones in the Yoredale limestones on Simon Fell (part of the Ingleborough massif). Where stones have been used to build walls and then got weathered the crinoids stand out really well.

 

[legendrider]

We found some large disarticulate stem segments in shale below the Great Limestone in Barneycraig Mine.

We called them Fossilised Polo Mints

 

[A_Wiggles_StoneyM]

A picture of a full crinoid near the bottom of this article, what an alien!

'Smiling' fossil discovered in Northumberland

The unusual looking fossil is estimated to be a few hundred million years old dating to the Carboniferous period.

www.bbc.co.uk

View attachment 25267

A picture of a full crinoid near the bottom of this article, what an alien!

'Smiling' fossil discovered in Northumberland

The unusual looking fossil is estimated to be a few hundred million years old dating to the Carboniferous period.

www.bbc.co.uk

View attachment 25267

If you ever happen to be in Cambridge Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences have some good complete crinoid fossils. And lots of other nice stuff

 

[legendrider]

For those interested in soft-tissue fossils, Stephen Jay Gould's book Wonderful Life explores the exceptional preservation of a late-Cambrian fauna in the Burgess Shale of British Columbia. The collapse of a sedimentary deposit on a steep underwater slope carried numerous creatures into a deep, stagnant basin where anoxic conditions preserved the soft tissues with remarkable fidelity, as well as preventing scavenging organisms from attacking the corpses before burial. Similar conditions are known in the Black Sea today, where little thrives below the mixing zone other than purple bacteria. Such rare and sought-after localities are known as "Lagerstätten" which literally means 'storage place'.

Full disclosure - all my own words, no AI involved (don't need it!)

 

[Jenny P]

We found some large disarticulate stem segments in shale below the Great Limestone in Barneycraig Mine.

We called them Fossilised Polo Mints

A really good place to find the disarticulated stem segments is Gratton Dale in Derbyshire. Walk up the Dale from Dale End (about 1 mile west of Elton on the minor road) and look on the left hand side around a quarter of a mile up, where there is some loose soil from rabbit burrows. They look like small greyish buttons only with 5 holes instead of 2 or 4 and you can collect them by the handfull. Added bonus at the right time of the year is masses of orchids in the same area.