Camptostroma roddyi
Phylum Echinodermata, Class Edrioasteroidea
Geological Time: Early Cambrian
Size: Fossil is 1 3/8 x 1 3/8” on a 4 x 4 ½” piece of rough matrix
Fossil Site: Kinzer Formation, Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Fossil Code: PFO404
Price: $350.00
 Description:
Presented is an excellent example of a Camptostroma roddyi from
the Kinzer Formation. These are rarely offered to the public, and
it will surely be a treat to the specialist collector of Lower
Cambrian non-arthropod life forms.
Camptostroma roddyi is an extinct echinoderm from the Bonnia-Olenellus Zone the Early Cambrian Kinzers Formation near York and Lancaster, Southeastern Pennsylvania. In life, it would have resembled a cupcake, with the axial skeleton forming a star pattern on the upper surface. It was originally thought, on the basis of its medusoid shape, to be a jellyfish-like organism, but the fossils themselves clearly rule out the possibility of a gelatinous body - the stereom plates are clearly preserved and possess the calcitic cleavage pattern diagnostic of echinoderms. It has been placed in a class of basal echinoderms, the Edrioasteroids. This specimen came from an old collection, acquired by a well-known collector who worked the local Swatara Gap, Martinsburg Formation, and Lancaster area, Kinzer Formation for decades. The old Getz and Brubacker quarries, one of which this specimen certainly came from, have been closed and covered over for many years. |
