010220

Echinoid spine in fossil hash, Mississippian Bangor Limestone, thin-section photomicrograph, field-of-view 2.5 mm wide.

031419

Fossil grainstone, which buried a carbonate mound. Mixture of echinoderm and bryozoan fossils, with other, less common, elements. Mississippian Bangor Limestone, Alabama. Thin section photomicrograph.

031319

Skeletal grainstone, Bangor Limestone, Mississippian, Alabama. Thin-section photomicrograph.

030119c

The eocrinoid Gogia spiralis, Middle Cambrian, western Utah.

313-million-year-old jawbone of an ass

Hammer time! But this is part of a crinoid or other echinoderm & the visible part is only about 1 mm long. Reddish-brown & with sediment welded to it--it sat out on the sea floor for quite some time. Tuscumbia Limestone, Mississippian, subsurface Walker Co., Alabama.

nature abhors a small vacuum

under the bridge
crinoids troll
motes beware