Description

Crinoids are a fascinating species, and this fossil is equally as fascinating. Crinoids are echinoderms and are a filter feeding, plant like marine animal and first appeared on the earth’s surface over 500 million years ago in the Cambrian Era. Stemmed crinoids flourished in the Paleozoic seas with their remains abundant in Paleozoic rock sequences.  Today a close relative of the Crinoid still survives at the bottom of the ocean and is usually referred to as a “sea lily.”