Primitive echinoderm - Stylophora!!! - Fossilised animal - Chauvelicystis spinosa (Ubaghs, 1969) - 17 cm - 9 cm (No Reserve Price)

Spectacular plaque with a complete specimen of Chauvelicystis, a primitive and enigmatic echinoderm that lived during the Ordovician period. There is a plaque and a counter-plaque. The Chauvelicystis 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 slides contain one complete specimen. Specimens with this level of preservation are extremely rare. The contrast between the fossils and the matrix is spectacular. The extraordinary preservation of the fossils allows for the observation of the delicate structures of Chauvelicystis in minute detail. There is a slide and a counter-slide. A museum-worthy specimen.

Plastic supports included.

Plate measurements: 170 x 90 x 20 mm; 344g
Counterplate measurements: 120 x 95 x 15 mm; 200g
Chauvelicystis measurements: 18 x 10 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.