Furcaster palaeozoicus Stürtz 1886

Taxonomy

Brittle Star

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Echinodermata Klein 1754
Class: Ophiuroidea Gray 1840
Order: Oegophiurida Matsumoto 1915
Family: Protasteridae Miller 1889
Genus: Furcaster
Species: Furcaster palaeozoicus
Author Citation Stürtz 1886

Geological Time Scale

Eon: Phanerozoic
Era: Paleozoic
Period: Devonian
Sub Period: None
Epoch: Early
International Age: Emsian (early)

Stratigraphy

Hunsrück Slate Group
Kaub Formation
Herrenberg Member

Provenance

Collector: T. Bastelberger
Date Collected: 06/01/1970
Acquired by: Field Collection

Dimensions

Diameter: 8 cm

Location

Heap pile "Grube Herrenberg"
Bundenbach
Rhineland-Palatinate
Germany

• bundenbach
• decheni
• devonian
• emsian
• furcaster
• palaeozoicus
• tff-oilshale-ec1907

Comments

Taxonomy from Fossilworks.org.

Description from Südkamp 2017, p. 139: " Furcaster is a very abundant ophiuroid with opposing fused ambulacrals. These vertebrae are elongate and wing-like. The five narrow arms are high and taper to whip-like extremities. Each ambulacral pair has a pronounced median dorsal oval cleft. The ambulacral plates are essentially flat and plastron-like orally (plastron is the lower shell of a turtle). The round small disc is granulated. The mouth frame is petaloid and the mouth-angle plates are sub-triangular in outline. The ambulacral groove is open. The laterals are blocky to barette-shaped. They bear a tuft of vertical needle-like spines, and leaf-like groove spines."

Lehmann (1957) listed three species: Furcaster palaeozoicus, F. decheni and F. zitteli. F. palaeozoicus is smaler and less robust than F. decheni. The disc incorporates about three arm segments.

Identified by oilshale.

References: 
Stürtz, B. (1886) Beitrag zur Kenntnis paläozoische Seesterne. Palaeontographica 32:75-98.
Lehmann, W.M. (1957) Die Asterozoen in den Dachschifern des rheinischen Unterdevons. Abhandlungen des Hessischen Landeshamtes für Bodenforchung 21:1-160.
Südkamp, W. (2017): Life in the Devonian. Identification book Hunsrück Slate fossils. Verlag Dr. Friedrich Pfeil. München 2017. ISBN978-3-89937-221-2.