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Showing results for tags 'pentremites'.
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Curious and a bit crazy, I drove a couple hours out to what used to be a popular blastoid collecting site in Illinois. I've read online that this location has been the example of a couple bad apples ruining the bunch in the past, so I wasn't sure if I could collect or not. The exposure lies in a creek between private property, so to cover my bases I went knocking on some doors. Sometimes, that's all it takes. I spoke with the landowner, and he was nice and did not mind me looking and collecting. I would kindly express that anyone else with similar intentions do the same. Excited, I raced down to the exposure. A short walk from my car and I found the creek. The post will be picture heavy. A bit overgrown, but that's normal during the summertime in the Midwestern USA. I waded to the other side of the creek and started checking the mud towards the bottom. It didn't take long until I found a Pentremites blastoid! It was a decent size, though a bit compressed. Checking back, I noticed another one right below it, and gave them a quick creek wash. I then went up and started checking the first lower wall and noticed a nice dirty blastoid eroding out of what looks like a mudstone/ shale rock. I decided getting low on my hands and knees and checking through all the eroded material would be the best approach. This worked well. There were many blastoids just waiting to be plucked at the surface, or waiting just below some debree. So far, they were all in nice condition. The soft matrix attached also comes off easily in most cases. After finding 4, I got overwhelmed a bit from excitement and had to sit for a few minutes. A short break later, I started looking again and found more. A lot more. There were so many Pentremite blastoids just littered around. It was almost like picking up pecans when they start to fall, but better! Venturing towards the top of the exposure, I noticed some larger examples. Some were exposed in the soft wall, while a few looked like they had fell out recently. Here was a very nice specimen I found towards the top buried in mud. After a quick wash Almost everything I had found was just laying there and weathered out. No tools were required. I flipped through and looked at some of the bigger chunks of rock, but most were barren besides one cool little multi block. There were also some nice brachiopods and bryozoa I collected, which I sadly didn't photograph. I did find some sort of crusher toothplate as well. I think the blastoids always get most of the attention here, and I can understand why. I've never collected a spot with them so abundant. My final find ended up being my favorite, and biggest blastoid. I'm amazed at the quality, sizes, and sheer abundance of Pentremites blastoids that are here. This was a lot of fun and is a productive place to spend a day.
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From the album: MY FOSSIL Collection - Dpaul7
Blastoids - Two Pentremites in Matrix Chesterian Zone of the Bangor Limestone Formation in northern Alabama Mississippian Period (ca 325,000,000 years old) Blastoids (class Blastoidea) are an extinct type of stemmed echinoderm.[1] Often called sea buds, blastoid fossils look like small hickory nuts. They first appear, along with many other echinoderm classes, in the Ordovician period, and reached their greatest diversity in the Mississippian subperiod of the Carboniferous period. However, blastoids may have originated in the Cambrian. Blastoids persisted until their extinction at the end of Permian, about 250 million years ago. Although never as diverse as their contemporary relatives, the crinoids, blastoids are common fossils, especially in many Mississippian-age rocks. Pentremites is an extinct genus of blastoid echinoderm belonging to the family Pentremitidae. These echinoderms averaged a height of about 11 centimetres (4.3 in)but occasionally ranged up to about 3 times that size. They, like other blastoids, superficially resemble their distant relatives, the crinoids or sea lilies, having a near-idential lifestyle living on the sea floor attached by a stalk. They trapped food floating in the currents by means of tentacle-like appendages. Pentremites species lived in the early to middle Carboniferous, from 360.7 to 314.6 Ma. Its fossils are known from North America. Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Echinodermata Class: †Blastoidea Order: †Spiraculata Family: †Pentremitidae Genus: †Pentremites -
From the album: MY FOSSIL Collection - Dpaul7
Blastoids - Two Pentremites in Matrix Chesterian Zone of the Bangor Limestone Formation in northern Alabama Mississippian Period (ca 325,000,000 years old) Blastoids (class Blastoidea) are an extinct type of stemmed echinoderm.[1] Often called sea buds, blastoid fossils look like small hickory nuts. They first appear, along with many other echinoderm classes, in the Ordovician period, and reached their greatest diversity in the Mississippian subperiod of the Carboniferous period. However, blastoids may have originated in the Cambrian. Blastoids persisted until their extinction at the end of Permian, about 250 million years ago. Although never as diverse as their contemporary relatives, the crinoids, blastoids are common fossils, especially in many Mississippian-age rocks. Pentremites is an extinct genus of blastoid echinoderm belonging to the family Pentremitidae. These echinoderms averaged a height of about 11 centimetres (4.3 in)but occasionally ranged up to about 3 times that size. They, like other blastoids, superficially resemble their distant relatives, the crinoids or sea lilies, having a near-idential lifestyle living on the sea floor attached by a stalk. They trapped food floating in the currents by means of tentacle-like appendages. Pentremites species lived in the early to middle Carboniferous, from 360.7 to 314.6 Ma. Its fossils are known from North America. Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Echinodermata Class: †Blastoidea Order: †Spiraculata Family: †Pentremitidae Genus: †Pentremites -
From the album: MY FOSSIL Collection - Dpaul7
Pentremites Blastoid echinoderm fossil Kentucky, USA Early to Middle Carboniferous, from 360.7 to 314.6 years ago Blastoids (class Blastoidea) are an extinct type of stemmed echinoderm. Often called sea buds, blastoid fossils look like small hickory nuts. They first appear, along with many other echinoderm classes, in the Ordovician period, and reached their greatest diversity in the Mississippian subperiod of the Carboniferous period. However, blastoids may have originated in the Cambrian. Blastoids persisted until their extinction at the end of Permian, about 250 million years ago. Although never as diverse as their contemporary relatives, the crinoids, blastoids are common fossils, especially in many Mississippian-age rocks. Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Echinodermata Class: Blastoidea Order: Spiraculata Family: Pentremitidae Genus: Pentremites -
From the album: MY FOSSIL Collection - Dpaul7
Pentremites Blastoid echinoderm fossil Kentucky, USA Early to Middle Carboniferous, from 360.7 to 314.6 years ago Blastoids (class Blastoidea) are an extinct type of stemmed echinoderm. Often called sea buds, blastoid fossils look like small hickory nuts. They first appear, along with many other echinoderm classes, in the Ordovician period, and reached their greatest diversity in the Mississippian subperiod of the Carboniferous period. However, blastoids may have originated in the Cambrian. Blastoids persisted until their extinction at the end of Permian, about 250 million years ago. Although never as diverse as their contemporary relatives, the crinoids, blastoids are common fossils, especially in many Mississippian-age rocks. Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Echinodermata Class: Blastoidea Order: Spiraculata Family: Pentremitidae Genus: Pentremites
