Detailed Ordovician Cyclocystoid Echinoderm Fossil

Description: This plate displays an example of an enigmatic family of Echinoderms known as the cyclocistoids. The group is little known and scantily understood. The digestive system is incompletely known. They consist of a completely plated disc encircled by a pleated peripheral skirt. It is thought that the mouth was oriented on the ventral surface to allow for collection of the microscopic food that they presumably fed upon. They are found from the Middle Ordovician of North America to the Middle Devonian of Europe. This is the first one my source has found in New York State.