A Colony Of Sea Lily Fossils

 A Colony of Sea Lily Fossils

Scyphocrinite elegans, crinodaeia

Ordovician, Paleozoic

Erfoud, Morocco

52 x 37 1/2 inches. A very large and beautifully preserved specimen, the light-gray lilies elegantly arranged on a rose colored matrix.

Crinoids, relatives of sea urchins and starfish, appeared more than 500 million years ago. Despite their deceptively simple common name, the sea lily was in fact an unusual creature attached to the bottom of the seas. The present specimen is composed of the stalked crinoids with long rods attached to their tentacled calyxes that once filtered food particles from the currents flowing past them. This elegant bouquet of sea lilies is a significant example of extraordinary quality that visualizes the meadows or forests they used to comprise during the Paleozoic era.