Well tumbled Natural Fossil Crinoidea (sea lilies) Stone (small size pieces) - 0.5 Kg Lot (1.1 pound)

Weight per piece: 1.8 to 9.7 gram

Sizes:  8x11x15 mm to 11x21x22 mm

Quantity: about 65 to 160 pieces in each lot

These fossil stones are from China.

The picture in the listing is just for reference as we are selling multiple pieces with the same picture.

*** 

Crinoidea (sea lilies)

Phylum: Echinodermata  Class: Crinoidea  Orders: Articulata, (living)  Cladida, extinct
Flexibilia, extinct  Camerada, extinct  Disparida, extinct

Crinoids live in the sea. Their name is derived from krinoeides (Greek) which means 'like a lily'. They are also called sea lilies or feather-stars.

Crinoids are animals despite their name. They are related to starfish and echinoids. These often have 5 fold symmetry.

They live both in shallow water and in depths as great as 6,000 meters.

Crinoids have been around for a long time, about 480 million years ago. There are still crinoids alive today.

Crinoids are rare nowadays but in the past they were common, so there are a lot of crinoid fossils.

They dominated the Paleozoic fossil record of echinoderms and shallow marine habitats until the Permo-Triassic extinction, when they suffered a near complete extinction: many Paleozoic limestones are made up largely of crinoid skeletal fragments.

They could be found all over the world, creating forests on the floor of the shallow seas. There were so many in places, that thick limestone beds were formed almost entirely from their body parts piled on top of each other.