Description

Ctenophore?
Ordovician
Trenton Limestone
Little Falls NY USA

Jellyfish, Soft-bodied. Cnidarian. Cnidaria. Ctenophore.

One of the animals you might think could never be preserved as a fossil would be a jellyfish. When you see one at an aquarium, it looks like a translucent or even transparent bloom of gelatin. Some rocks scattered across time and the world are fine-grained enough to preserve at least the imprint of an organism that delicate.

This specimen comes from a site better known for preserving animals with hard parts but jellyfish are known from there too. It appears to be a form different from what has been found before and may be an ancient comb jelly (ctenophore), which would be an animal that resembles a jellyfish but belongs to a whole other phylum.