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How Wide Can Crinoid Columnals Get?


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I have this crinoid columnal that is 1/2 inch in diameter. It is the largest that I have come across. It made me wonder how large they get and since as a former coworker used to say "inquiring minds have to know" I poked around on the internet a bit. I came across a picture posted from Texas of 3/4 inch ones and read about some as large as an inch. Since I know that some stems have gotten over 100 feet in length 1 inch diameter columnals don't seem that big. How wide can they get? How wide have FF members found?

Patti

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100 feet?! Great Googly Moogly!

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I've wondered the same thing - my widest are these, up to 1.15" for the undistorted ones, from the Brigantian (U. Mississippian) of northern England.

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Tarquin

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100 feet?! Great Googly Moogly!

I know! I did read it on the internet but the longest was listed as 130ft.

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The longest pluricolumnal is generally said to be 40 metres (130 feet) and mentioned in “The Anatomy of the Sea” by Ponsonby & Dussart. I’ve not read the book but I believe it was a Pentacrinites. Odd that it doesn’t seem to be reported anywhere else as far as I can tell. The length must be an estimate from a tangled mass of stems (which is the typical habit for extreme growth), so “length” is a slightly misleading term in that there wouldn’t have been a 40 meter length of it waving around in the ocean like a bizarre tulip.

Length and diameter don’t go hand in hand for crinoids. I don’t think they get much beyond TqB’s (amazing) specimens, whatever the length.

Roger

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I've wondered the same thing - my widest are these, up to 1.15" for the undistorted ones, from the Brigantian (U. Mississippian) of northern England.

attachicon.gifIMG_0516.JPG

Those are heavy duty looking. Here is my little 1/2 inch single disk.

post-13012-0-01513600-1403977462_thumb.jpg

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My biggest:

post-6808-0-04134600-1403978469_thumb.jpg

Coal City Limestone, Pennsylvanian

Johnson County, Missouri

Context is critical.

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The longest pluricolumnal is generally said to be 40 metres (130 feet) and mentioned in “The Anatomy of the Sea” by Ponsonby & Dussart. I’ve not read the book but I believe it was a Pentacrinites. Odd that it doesn’t seem to be reported anywhere else as far as I can tell. The length must be an estimate from a tangled mass of stems (which is the typical habit for extreme growth), so “length” is a slightly misleading term in that there wouldn’t have been a 40 meter length of it waving around in the ocean like a bizarre tulip.

Length and diameter don’t go hand in hand for crinoids. I don’t think they get much beyond TqB’s (amazing) specimens, whatever the length.

:D I was picturing a very bizarre tulip look.

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Those have to be ~ 1inch or close to it, right? They are very nice.

Close to 1". The picture makes them look a bit smaller for some reason.

Context is critical.

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the largest crinoid stem piece I have found was a bit over 1 inch....and it's pentagonal! Found it out in West Texas near Marathon.

Edited by JamieLynn
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the largest crinoid stem piece I have found was a bit over 1 inch....and it's pentagonal! Found it out in West Texas near Marathon.

It sounds like a little over an inch is as big as they get and Texas seems to have big ones. If you get a chance post a picture of yours. I would like to see a large pentagonal one.

Patti

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

The slab pieces range from 1/4" to 3/4" (slab 6"x8") and the largest in the second pix is 1". I have some up to 1 1/2" but couldn't find them quickly.About the size of a half dollar.

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  • 3 months later...

They get mighty big in the Ft. Payne Chert. Some of the columns can push 1.5 inches wide.

Gabe

I like crinoids......

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  • 4 years later...

I'm new and this is a great thread to see. I've been dissolving the matrix away from little ones, in the range of about 0.5 mm, and finding that an absorbing activity. I stumbled on them because I was checking to see if vinegar would selectively clean the matrix away from a chain coral, and started seeing these other objects in the debris. Thanks to those who make this forum possible.

 

5d67546b5f822_FromManitoba22TyndallStone22.png.b081516d1da2bc4ef8685afd9e5705bf.png

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  • 1 year later...

Is this thread still active? I recently brought home this crinoid fossil which has an outside diameter of 4"

20210705_212219.jpg

20210706_102023.jpg

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Welcome to the Forum! :) 

That is impressive, but are you positive it is a crinoid columnal? 
I don't see any of the crenulations normally associated with stem sections. 

@IAmHal

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Crinoid columnals often don't show any articulation facets and are smooth in which case they are known as synotosial. 

But this is too big and the lumen and perilumen just don't look correct.  

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I agree looks like it may be some sort of weathered concretion. notice the other "lumps" on the rock, I could imagine one of those cracked open and then the softer inside eroded away. There's also some smaller flat ones on the bottom left that look exactly like the big one only without a hole and those are definitely not crinoid columnals.

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I tend to disagree with Tigdy's and Top Trilo. I understand that my cell phone photography cannot be considered very helpful in producing an identification. However, for your consideration I submit these further photographs. Below are additional photos of the 4-inch crinoid column base and photos which look more closely at other smaller columnals present.

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You can disagree all you like. It's your right to do so. 

But no crinoid columnal I have ever seen is this big or has this structure and I have seen many, many thousands of 'em from hundreds of sites in dozens of countries. 

That last picture clearly shows that these objects are nothing to do with echinoderms of any ilk. 

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