Description

Pentremites godoni
Late Mississippian
Elwren Formation
Grayson County, KY, USA

Very rare 19mm blastoid WITH COLOR PATTERN PRESERVED.

Blastoid. Carboniferous.

Pentremites is a genus of blastoid that lived across the Mississippian and Pennsylvanian Periods.  It is known from various parts of North America from northern Canada to Arizona and east to Virginia.

Blastoids are an extinct group of echinoderms that appeared during the Ordovician and survived to the end of the Permian.  Like crinoids their plated bodies were connected to the seafloor by a column and a holdfast, which is like an anchior.

You might find a Pliocene or even an Eocene mollusk shell that still has some color preserved and you might find an insect fossil that still shows color pattern but a fossil from the Paleozoic that still shows the color pattern is astounding.