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Description: | Specimen of a fossil graptolite, Phyllograptus sp., collected from the Loweswater Formation, Skiddaw Group of Early Ordovician, Arenig, Moridunian age from Barf, Bassenthwaite, Cumbria (NW England). Collected by Emma Smith.
Graptolites are the fossilised skeletons of microscopic animals which lived and drifted near the surface of the sea. After death, the skeletons sank and became fossilised in the mud forming on the seabed. The mud eventually turned into mudstone. When the continents on either side of the Ordovician sea drifted together and collided, the mudstone was heated, compressed and converted into slate. This is why the rock has a wrinkled appearance and the fossils look a little lop-sided! Graptolites are used by geologists to date and compare outcrops of Ordovician rocks throughout the world.
The specimen was found in Cumbria.
It is from the Ordovician period (495 - 443 million years ago) | Publisher: | Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums | Subjects: | Graptolithina Classification: Animalia Smith Chordata Hemichordata Emma | Temporal: | Ordovician period (495 - 443 million years ago) | Source: | Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums | Identifier: | http://www.twmuseums.org.uk/geofinder/se... | Go to resource |
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