Great South Gems & Minerals

• Echinoid Fossils •
(Alabama)

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• Echinoid Fossils •
(Alabama)

echinoids - sea urchin - starfish - sea cucumbers - sand dollar - brittle stars

These are rough looking fossil specimens as most have some cracking and chipping on the top of the shell. The underside of the specimens are very well preserved. This animal lived mostly in shallow seas. They would have moved about on the sea floor by way of moving their long spines that stuck out from their shell. They would have eaten mostly algae. The echinoid has a exoskeleton or outer shell with no inner skeleton.

Late Cretaceous age, about 60,000,000 years old. Collected in Alabama, an area that once was covered with shallow seas. Modern echinoids include the sea urchin, starfish, sea cucumbers, sand dollar and brittle stars. The echinoids, having such an extremely long fossil record, dating back to the Ordovician period, around 490 million years ago, is often used by scientist and paleontologist for dating rock strata and fossil locations. The mouth of the echinoids are at the underside of the animal. Many collections, both private and public, are comprised of many different species of fossil echinoids.

Class: Echinoidea

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