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MIDDLE JURASSIC CRINOID & ECHINOID

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 18:16:19 +0000

Pentacrinites dargniesi

Middle Jurassic (Bathonian)

Ferrette, Alsace, France

I collected this specimen decades ago.

The echinoid (right) is unidentified. The crinoid, Pentacrinites is a floating sea lily that was attached to driftwood during its adult life. This pseudo-planktonic lifestyle enabled it to exploit food unavailable to other crinoids. Pentacrinites became extinct and has left no direct living descendants. Its remains have been found in many different locations, suggesting it occurred throughout the world's oceans. Free living isocrinids however, still populate the seas, usually at over 150m deep. (Wikipedia)

Mellita caroliniana - fish nibbled

Thu, 27 Oct 2022 21:50:48 +0000

These are two "sand dollars," Mellita caroliniana, from the Early Pleistocene Waccamaw Formation of coastal South Carolina. The one on the right has been nibbled by a fish, but survived and healed the damaged edges.

Mellitidae Sand Dollars B

Tue, 25 Oct 2022 20:38:27 +0000

Two species of Mellitidae sand dollar from the Middle Pleistocene Canepatch Fm of Horry County, South Carolina.

Mellitidae Sand Dollars A

Tue, 25 Oct 2022 20:38:26 +0000

Beekite-replaced Clam Burrow

Thu, 22 Mar 2018 19:35:58 +0000

Chalcedony (Beekite) replacing a section of calcareous clam burrow. Kuphus sp. is Cenozoic in age with one extant species. It is reputed to be the longest clam that ever existed.

Homotelus bromidensis

Tue, 01 Nov 2022 18:16:03 +0000

A trilobite, Family Asaphidae, Homotelus bromidensis,
from the Ordovician of Carter County, Oklahoma.

Coral Dichocoenia

Wed, 08 Oct 2014 16:51:11 +0000

This is a soft-ball size coral head (a corallum) from the Pliocene of Florida. This specimen has a number of interesting features: The epitheca (the thin covering over the exterior) is removed -- probably ground down by tumbling on the sea bottom -- on the dorsal portion of the corallum. The proper walls of the calces (the individual corallites) are exposed in the damaged area (though these walls are indistinct in Dichocoenia).

On the left in the image, two clams of the Family Pholadidae ('rock-burrowing clams') are imbedded in the corallum. Hiatella arctica is one such pholadid known from these deposits.

On the right in the image, the epitheca has overgrown a Vermicularia shell.

Here is a handy glossary of coral-related terms (not all of them illustrated here):

Calyx (plural calces): the bowl-shaped depression or "seat" in which the living polyp resides.
Corallite: the skeleton produced by one polyp, which may or may not be part of a colony
Epitheca: the outermost skeletal layer of a corallite which sometimes shows growth lines. Non-trabecular skeletal sheath along outside colony margin.
Tabula (plural tabulae): a horizontal partition (or floor) dividing the corallite skeleton.
Septum (plural septa): vertical blade or partition within the calyx of a corallite that are normally radially arranged.
Dissepiment: small curved plate in a corallite near the tabulae that is convex inward and upwards.
Mural pores: the small holes in the epitheca of some tabulate corals.
Columella: an axial rod in a corallite usually formed by the fusion of two or more septa that typically forms a topographic prominence in the central part of the calyx.

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Turbo (gastropod)

Tue, 01 Nov 2022 18:17:52 +0000

Turbo Operculum (gastropod)

Tue, 30 Jul 2013 01:13:15 +0000

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spiny gastropods

Tue, 01 Nov 2022 17:28:13 +0000

Here are three fairly common gastropods from the Pliocene Caloosahatchee Beds in SW Florida. These represent two different families: Turbinellidae and Muricidae. I have duplicates of these shells.