Exceptional Utah Ordovician Graptolites Assemblage

Description: This is a fine assemblage of graptolites known as Phyllograptus archaios. Graptolites are colonial animals belonging to the hemichordates. The term originates from the patronymic genus Graptolithus. The graptolites have a cosmopolitan distribution, and so serve as index fossils in many locations. The Graptoloidea were pelagic, drifting with the currents, and were the most important members of the plankton before dying out in the early Devonian. This genus draws its name from its leaf-like shape. There are several examples of this large species preserved here.