Description
Here is your chance to own a classic cystoid fossil from a classic site. A nice showy piece as well
Harder and Harder to obtain fossils from this private quarry in Middleport, New York
This is an exceptional but small block of a Cystoid theca and Graptolite from the Rochester Shale of New York.
The Caryocrinites and Graptolite Fossils collected decades ago and just recently prepared by our prep lab..
Here is a Super detailed cystoid from a classic site in NY.
Cystoids from this site are preserved in SPECTACULAR detail. Because of the wide variety and number of these Cystoids it is also assumed they lived in dense communities,
The Caryocrinites and Graptolite Fossils are actually animals related to modern day starfish. They are echinoderms. There are modern relatives of the Cystois called crinoids living in the deep oceans today. But then they lived in shallow salt water seas and lagoons. They lived during the Paleozoic and were most prevalent during the Mississippian Period.
Although there were many species of Cystoids, they shared a basic body styles consisting of a stem by which it anchored to the sea floor with a “holdfast”, a theca which enclosed soft body tissues, and arms and pinnules which filtered food from the water.
Caryocrinites and Graptolite Fossils thrived in the warm inland sea that covered the area during the Silurian Period some 420 million years ago. The cystoids living near what is now Middleport New York were established near a delta system that periodically buried the colonies in silt. This silt eventually hardened into stone that preserved the Cystoids in glorious detail.
This block with Caryocrinites and Graptolite Fossils have exceptional detail . It is 5/8 by 1/2 inches wide. It has been meticulously prepared using air abrasive technology. There is also a small and highly detailed graptolite attached. .
