Saturday, November 3, 2012

Starfish Traces from France

What looks like a starfish fossil is, in fact, a trace fossil. It represents where a starfish burrowed into the sediment to hide and rest or in search of prey. This fossil comes from the middle Jurassic (Callovian stage) from La Voulte-sur-Rhône in France. This site is considered a Lagerstatte due to the fine preservation of echinoderms like starfish, brittlestars, crinoids etc. along with many other animals where the soft tissues have been preserved by pyrite or phosphate.



This fossil was sent to me by my friend Gery in France.

Here's a link to the Wikipedia page about the locality.

This website has some of the actual starfish fossils for sale.

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