|
Date: |
|
Description: | Specimen of a fossil echinoid (sea urchin), Cidaris sp., collected from the Chalk Formation of Late Cretaceous age.
Animals sometimes lose parts of their bodies when they are alive or break up into separate pieces after they die. Such fragments are often found in the fossil record. Sea urchin spines are a very good example of this. The shape and the patterns on the spines are often distinctive enough to match them to a particular sea urchin species. Echinoids are useful environmental indicators because they live in open seas where the salinity (water salt content) is normal.
It is from the Cretaceous period (144 - 65 million years ago) | Publisher: | Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums | Subjects: | Classification: Animalia Echinodermata Invertebrata Echinoidea | Temporal: | Cretaceous period (144 - 65 million years ago) | Source: | Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums | Identifier: | http://www.twmuseums.org.uk/geofinder/se... | Go to resource |
|
More Like this...
-
Echinoid
Animals sometimes lose parts of…
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
|