BobWill Posted May 22, 2017 Share Posted May 22, 2017 I went back to the site where a friend found the brittle star mass mortality assemblage I posted here on the 16th of May. I wanted to look for one of my own and was just about to give up when I spotted this rock with more than just arms this time. This central disc is 7mm across and some of the arms are still attached. This is from the Duck Creek Formation in Cooke County Texas which is in the Washita Group, Albian Stage of the Lower Cretaceous. Is this enough detail to put a name on the label for this thing? I'll settle for a family if no one knows the genus or species. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike from North Queensland Posted May 22, 2017 Share Posted May 22, 2017 Nice find and it now takes all doubt out of the specimen being a brittle star. Wish I knew what the actual genus is. Mike D'Arcy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Dente Posted May 22, 2017 Share Posted May 22, 2017 Nice find. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DPS Ammonite Posted May 22, 2017 Share Posted May 22, 2017 I did some research and found that Cretaceous articulated brittle stars are rare. I found an expert that has written about Cretaceous Texas and Mexican brittle stars that you should send photos to: Ben Thuy, a paleontologist at the Natural History Museum in Luxembourg. Email is: nebyuhtyahoo.com. Look at some of his papers from Research Gate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ben_Thuy/publications. Here are two papers that mention the rarity of brittlestar fossils and suggest that genus and species IDs can be made from individual plates: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1475-4983.2008.00836.x/pdf and http://www.geomuseum.uni-goettingen.de/museum/publications/images/Contributions_of_geosciences/10.3249_3927.pdf Bob, please let us know what you find out. John 3 My goal is to leave no stone or fossil unturned. See my Arizona Paleontology Guide link The best single resource for Arizona paleontology anywhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westcoast Posted May 22, 2017 Share Posted May 22, 2017 That's good work on finding even more to give a really complete picture of those creatures. There's a chunk of work there for somebody. I look forward to following this topic further. Has a new species been named after TFF yet?..fossilforumi sounds good. Just saying... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doushantuo Posted May 22, 2017 Share Posted May 22, 2017 the definitive paper on isolated lateral arm ossicles is Stohr's 2011 Zootaxa paper,still paywalled. From a slightly less groundbreaking free access neontological paper of hers: 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piranha Posted May 22, 2017 Share Posted May 22, 2017 According to Berry 1941, there are three Cretaceous ophiuroids from Texas. The lower Cretaceous species are: Ophiura graysonensis & Ophiura texana. Berry, C.T. (1941) Cretaceous ophiurans from Texas. Journal of Paleontology, 15:61-67 Check your PM for a pdf 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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