海百合石板

SUPERB DOUBLE CRINOID PLAQUE
Seirocrinus subangularis
Lower Jurassic
Posidonienschiefer Formation, Holzmaden, Germany
The Crinoid, known also as the Sea Lily or Feather Star, is one of the world's so-called "living fossils", with species still to be found in today's oceans from Indonesia to the Caribbean. Their fossils are also found all over the world, but the most beautiful and desirable are those from the Posidonia shale beds of Holzmaden, in southern Germany. Here we have two such examples on one plaque, their long columnals undulating gently as they would have done beneath the Jurassic oceans, terminating in the flower-like bloom of the crown. The gleaming shimmer of pyritization enhances the spectacular fine detail of their preservation, down to the contrasting dark mass of the driftwood to which they are attached, in a dark gray slate matrix, 63 x 33 1/2 inches