.5" Fossil Blastoid (Cryptoblastus) - Missouri

This is a cool plate of Mississipian aged echinoderm fossils from Missouri. There is a blastoid (Cryptoblastus melo) on a matrix full of crinoid and shell fragments. It comes with an acrylic display stand.

Blastoids are an extinct type of filter feeding, stemmed echinoderm that resembles a small hickory nut. They thrived during the Mississippian period before going extinct during the great Permian extinction. While not as diverse as their crinoid relatives, they were equally as common in rocks around the world. Blastoids were protected by a set of interlocking plates that formed the main body, or theca. In life, a typical blastoid's theca was attached to a stalk or column made up of stacked disc-shaped plates.

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.

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DETAILS
SPECIES
Cactocrinus proboscidialis & Cryptoblastus melo
LOCATION
Pike County, Missouri
FORMATION
Burlington Formation
SIZE
.5" Blastoid on 2.6 x 1.8" rock
CATEGORY
SUB CATEGORY
ITEM
#135581
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