Crinoid stem it’s in the same class, echinoderms, as starfish they all show radial symmetry. It’s a sea flower looking creature that has been around since before the dinosaurs and is still hanging around the oceans
Yes, a fossil. It's a broken section from a crinoid columnal. Those with columnar 'stalks' are sometimes called 'sea lilies' because of their resemblance to plants, but they're marine animals loosely related to starfish and sea urchins. That's the reason they sometimes have that five-pointed star shape in the centre of the columnal... because they share an evolutionary history with respect to ancestral forms. They date from the Ordovician period (around 480 million years ago) onwards and are not extinct today but there are no fossils known which are beyond the Late Triassic of c.200 mya.
Red-coat I know the feeling, I don’t get to help very often, and a lot of times when I can someone beats me to it. Never a bad thing to have some backup
Red-coat I know the feeling, I don’t get to help very often, and a lot of times when I can someone beats me to it. Never a bad thing to have some backup
Yes indeed... I don't regard the process of ID'ing as a competitive sport and often don't realise someone else has already replied with good information, if I haven't refreshed the page.