Museum Worthy Brittle Star Fossil - 4" Wide

This is another exceptional offering from the high end collection of material primarily acquired back in the 1980's and 1990's which is being sold on FossilEra.com The specimens from this collection represent some of the highest quality examples of their types found.

This dramatic brittle star or ophiuroid was collected from the Ordovian dated, Kataoua Formation, near Kaid rami in Morocco.

The body outline is similar to that of starfish, in that ophiuroids have five arms joined to a central body disk. However, in ophiuroids, the central body disk is sharply marked off from the arms.

Ophiuroids are generally scavengers or detritivores. Small organic particles are moved into the mouth by the tube feet. Brittle stars move fairly rapidly by wriggling their arms which are highly flexible which enables the animals to make either snake-like or rowing movements.
Paleozoic Ophiuroids might have preyed on small trilobites, and other slow moving, benthic creatures or worms

This is a fine specimen on an unbroken plate with excellent interior details, especially showing the oral shields and bursal slits. This type of detail is rarely seen on the commercially available brittle stars from this location which are typically restored.
.