Description: Taxocrinus sp. - fossil crinoid from the Mississippian of Ohio, USA. (CMNH 5685, Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Cleveland, Ohio, USA) Crinoids (sea lilies) are sessile, benthic, filter-feeding, stalked echinoderms that are relatively common in the marine fossil record. Crinoids are also a living group, but are relatively uncommon in modern oceans. A crinoid is essentially a starfish-on-a-stick. The stick, or stem, is composed of numerous stacked columnals, like small poker chips. Stems and individual columnals are the most commonly encountered crinoid fossils in the field. Intact, fossilized crinoid heads (crowns, calices, cups) are unusual. Why? Upon death, the crinoid body starts disintegrating very rapidly. The soft tissues holding the skeletal pieces together decay and the skeleton falls apart. Classification: Animalia, Echinodermata, Crinoidea, Flexibilia, Taxocrinida, Taxocrinidae Stratigraphy: Meadville Shale Member, lower Cuyahoga Formation, Kinderhookian Stage, lower Lower Mississippian Locality: unrecorded/undisclosed site at or near Lodi, southwestern Medina County, northeastern Ohio, USA See info. at:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crinoid. Date: 3 March 2013, 14:30. Source:
Taxocrinus sp. (fossil crinoid) (Meadville Shale, Lower Mississippian; Lodi, Ohio, USA) 1. Author:
James St. John.