#cystoid

[transparentfossil]

Multiple Silurian Cystoid (Caryocrinites) Fossils - New York

[mastomysowner]

Gingerbread cookies in the form of Ordovician animals (trilobites, cephalopods, cystoids and brachiopods).

[morgan-yu-think]

batch #2 of free-to-print Prey!

again I put these on twitter first, so you can substitute the whole ‘retweet’ for reblog ;)

[antediluvianechoes]

Ordovician seabed, Zdeněk Burian

You weirdos, you miscreations, you cystoids—named so-unfortunately-yet-so-appropriately—anchored in sand and detritus, mouth on the top and anus on the side, waving too few arms over bodies of deformed geometries—bodies like globs of wax spilled down a candleside, like the embryos of forgotten Platonic solids, like half-planted Lovecraftian rhizomes and bulbs, like toddler doodles looped and scribbled and abandoned on the playroom floor—how is it your breed lasted 100 million years?

[transparentfossil]

My personal cystoids from the Rochester shale in Niagara, New York :3

so neat!! Ty for sharing!!!

[fossilera]

Very Detailed Cystoid (Holocystites) Fossil - Indiana

Here is a beautifully preserved example of the Silurian aged cystoid, Holocystites from the Osgood Shale of Indiana. Cystoid are an extinct echinoderm (same Phylum as starfish, urchins, etc) that attached themselves to the see floor by stalks. This specimen is 3D and was prepared under microscope using air abrasives.

[fossilera]

Killer Pleurocystites (Cystoid) - Brechin, Ontario

Pleurocystites (meaning rib bag) is a genus of rhombiferan echinoderm - and a cystoid that lived in the Late Ordovician. Fossil Pleurocystites sp. are known from Europe and North America. Pleurocystites squamosa grew to a height of 6 centimeters and fed on tiny, floating particles. The most distinctive feature of cystoids was the presence of a number of pores in the rigid skeleton encasing the body. These were most likely respiratory in nature, allowing fluid to flow in or out of the body. This perfect, individual specimen came from the famous Bobcaygeon quarries near Ontario Canada and was collected in 1987. It is complete, fully articulated and 57mm tall on a stable, unbroken piece of thin shale. The Bobcaygeon Formation is characterized by brown to grey-brown, fossiliferous limestones and thin, interbedded shale layers - where this specimen was collected.  

[fossilporn]

Pseudocrinites magnificus, a fossil cystoid