Primitive echinoderm - Stylophora!!! - Fossilised animal - 11.5 cm - 7 cm (No Reserve Price)

Spectacular plaque with a complete specimen of Cothurnocystis, a primitive and enigmatic echinoderm that lived during the Ordovician period. The Cothurnocystis animal had a flat, boot-shaped body and a thin, rod-like appendage that may have been a stalk or something analogous to a foot or tail.
The plaque contains one complete specimen and the remains of another. Specimens with this level of preservation are extremely rare. The contrast between the fossil and the surrounding matrix is spectacular. The extraordinary preservation of the fossil allows for a detailed observation of the delicate structures of Cothurnocystis. A museum-worthy specimen.

Plastic supports included.

Cothurnocystis measurements: 45x20 mm

The deposits of the Fezouata formation, near the Moroccan city of Zagora, are providing a rich and diverse record of fossils with extraordinary preservation, up to soft tissues or soft-bodied animals being recorded fairly frequently. This type of preservation is similar, although later in time, to that of the famous Burgess Shale site (Canada).

These are fossils dating from between 480 and 472 million years ago. At that time, Morocco was an ocean and was located over the South Pole.