Description

Lower Carboniferous
Donbas, Ukraine.

21mm unidentified crinoid on 105mm matrix

Crinoids are a group of echinoderms that look like plants.  They even have the common name, “sea lilies.”  They date back to the Cambrian and have a rich Paleozoic history before nearly becoming extinct at the end of the Permian.  They survived across the Mesozoic and another mass extinction event and into the modern day finding refuge in deepwater habitats.

Nice crinoid with partial stem from an area now sadly war-torn.