Sale NH0903 Lot 216

CRINOID PLAQUE
Scyphocrites elegans
Silurian / early Devonian
Morocco
This mass mortality plate displays a plethora of the elegant crinoids of southern Morocco, their gray crowns and slender stalks preserved in fine detail and standing in rich aesthetic contrast to the russet-brown of the limestone matrix. These delicate and sinuous relatives of the starfish and sea-urchin spent their lives anchored to rocks and floating pieces of wood, tirelessly filtering plankton from the warm surrounding waters. Their floral appearance has earned them the nickname "sea lilies", and this excellent example gives some idea of what the vast "meadows" of these strange creatures would have looked like, gently swaying on the ocean floor. Arranged to stand upright, it measures 26 1/2 x 25 inches.
Estimate $1,000-1,400