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Description: | Specimen of a fossil graptolite, Didymograptus patulus, collected from the Skiddaw Group of Early Ordovician, Arenig (?) age from Randale Beck (?), Cumbria (NW England). Collected by John Jeffrey, 1918.
At first glance this fossil looks like a small saw blade in black slate! In fact it is part of the skeleton of an extinct fossil animal called a graptolite. The skeleton has been flattened during the process of fossilisation. When the animal was alive, each 'saw tooth' was the end of a microscopic tube in which a small animal lived. Graptolites lived in the sea, floating near the surface. They fed on microscopic particles which they were able to filter out of the water.
The specimen was found in Cumbria.
It is from the Ordovician period (495 - 443 million years ago) | Publisher: | Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums | Subjects: | Graptolithina Jeffrey Coelenterata Classification: Amimalia Invertebrata John | 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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