Description

Asteroid
Early Ordovician
El Kaid Errami, Morocco

Unusual 15mm six-armed starfish on 100mm by 120mm matrix.

Echinoderm.

Starfish are generally uncommon as fossils because they tend to disintegrate quickly after death, but in some rock layers where conditions allowed, they can be found in good numbers – deposits where rapid burial occurred to seal them in sediment. Most fossil starfish are missing the ends of their arms or even entire arms.

At a glance, this starfish might appear remarkable because it has 6 arms instead of 5, and it might be but it depends on the genus. Even today, some genera have more than 5 and even as many as 30. It’s still a great piece – collected before it eroded further – because it still shows at least part of all its arms.