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Charles Smith posted a new specimen. 3 years, 10 months ago
3 years, 10 months ago3 years, 10 months agoCharles Smith has contributed specimen mFeM 70248 to myFOSSIL!
Charles Smith posted a new specimen. 3 years, 10 months ago
Charles Smith has contributed specimen mFeM 70248 to myFOSSIL!
Hi @charles-smith, what a wonderful diagram of this fossil! The only thing this needs is a scale as well! @david-clark might be able to help you narrow down the identification!
What an interesting specimen! Jimbacrinus is a Permian crinoid only found in Australia. I think this may be a columnal or stem that was infected and bulged. This specimen has no obvious small tegmen plates (top of the calyx) or anal tube. It’s also curious if it only has 4 holes on the sides. If they were arms, it’s usually in multiples of 5. The holes are probably from the cirri on a stem. I love fossils that tell a story of how it lived.
This link shows some examples of parasitic infection. https://woostergeologists.scotblogs.wooster.edu/2014/11/14/woosters-fossils-of-the-week-a-new-crinoid-species-from-the-middle-jurassic-of-southern-israel-with-a-bonus-parasitic-infection/
Good News! Thanks to the observations and research done by David Clark of Howell, MI and Mark A. Wilson, a professor of Geology at the College of Wooster, Ohio, this crinoid stem piece has been identified as a swollen crinoid columnal due to parasitism by some unknown soft-bodied organism. The length of the piece is 2.60 CM and the diameter is 2.20 CM. For more about parasitism in crinoid stems visit Mark A. Wilson’s webpage: https://woostergeologists.scotblogs.wooster.edu/2014/11/14/woosters-fossils-of-the-week-a-new-crinoid-species-from-the-middle-jurassic-of-southern-israel-with-a-bonus-parasitic-infection/“