Pennsylvanian Blastoid in 3D

[Conostichus]

Fellow WIPS member Shellie Luallin, who is expert in 3D imaging of fossils

 

https://sketchfab.com/Paleogirl

 

recently imaged a presumed Pennsylvanian blastoid of mine from Cherokee County, OK and generously made it available as a free download:

 

 

https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/pentremites-rusticus-e729f54539014770b0128b000fca841b

 

Note the very pronounced interambulacral areas (deltoids) where the hydrospires are developed.

 

Katz (1978)

 

https://www.jstor.org/stable/1303971?seq=1

 

lumped exisiting variants into one species P. rusticus based on hydrospire similarity

 

Given that this distinctive morphologic end member is stratigraphically restricted and present a population, perhaps this conclusion should be revisited.