Tuesday, December 31, 2013

From the Collection: Uintacrinus socialis (floating crinoids)

Uintacrinus socialis
Floating Crynoid colony 
Discovered: 5/4/13
Smoky Hill Chalk (L. Cretaceous)
Kansas, USA



Little info about Uintacrinus...
~The only echinoderm currently known from the Smoky Hill Chalk
~ Related to starfish and sea urchins
~Were  apparently colonial and free-living (not attached to the sea bottom)
~ Named after the Uinta Mountains of Utah, where very fragmented remains were first discovered by Marsh in 1870. Better specimens were discovered in the Smoky Hill Chalk, few years later.

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