ID please - Ordovician - Edrioasteroid?

[Rogue Embryo]

Hello. I'm attaching two photos:

 

#1) an image of a "Rare Primitive Echinoderm (Edrioasteroid) from the Upper Ordovician of Ontario, Canada," from the following fossil website:

https://www.fossils-uk.com/product/new-rare-primitive-echinoderm-edrioasteroid-from-the-upper-ordovician-of-ontario-canada-sku0918-isorophuella-incondita/

 

#2) a fossil that I found that looks similar and is about the same size as the Edrioasteroid from #1.

 

Is it possible that my specimen (#2) is this Edrioasteroid?

 

Thanks for any assistance!

 

Camille

[erose]

Definitely a possibility. Do you have a magnifier to look closely at what is preserved? Look for the little plates that make up the outer ring.

 

For more images of edrioasteroids check out these two web sites:

 

http://www.drydredgers.org/edrio1.htm

 

http://strata.uga.edu/cincy/fauna/fauna.html

[Malcolmt]

Not the best picture but I would not rule out it being an edrioasteroid. A few seconds of air abrasion under a scope would tell for sure. If you wet it and took a better focused pic we may get a better idea. A few of us here on the forum have found quite a few edrioasteroids and cyclocystoids from this general area. Here is a amecystites with an edrio attached to it that was found a few years ago.

 

[Rogue Embryo]

Thanks so much, Erose & Malcolmt, for the helpful websites and beautiful photo! I'll try for a better image of my specimen tonight. Learning little by little!

 

Camille

[FossilDAWG]

My first impression would be that this is an edrioasteroid, although as others have said some cleaning would be necessary to say for sure.  You ask, however, if it is the same as  "this edrioasteroid".  Isorophusella incondita is the most common species of edrioasteroid in the Verulam Formation (assuming you found yours in that formation), but there are several others as well, such as Cryptogoleus chapmani, Cryptogoleus billingsii, Foerstediscus, Thresherodiscus, Lebetodiscus, etc.  You will have to clean your specimen to expose much more of the oral region and arms before you can make a definitive ID to species. There are also other genera, particularly Edrioaster and Edriophus, that do not have a marginal ring, unlike your specimen.

 

Don

 

 

[Malcolmt]

If you ever get out to Mississauga I can put it under the scope for you and give it a quick clean. I may be nothing or it may be an edrio or even a cyclocystoid