Geology / Gallery

Lapworthia miltoni (1)

This fossil resembles present day brittle stars (Ophiuroids) - a type of starfish. Ophiuroids ➚ are a very successful group of invertebrate animals. Living in shallow seas this group can occasionally be so numerous that whole bands of sedimentary rock are called 'starfish' beds.

Lapworthia miltoni is a species that flourished in the shallow Silurian seas in the area now covered by Shropshire, UK. The species is recorded between the early Ordovician ➚ into the early Silurian (a time period of about 80 million years).

Fossil gallery

• Brittle Star : Lapworthia miltoni
• Trilobite : Dalmanites myops
• Crinoid : Eucalyptocrinites decorus
• Gastropod : Poleumita discorus
• Trilobite : Calymene blumenbachi
• Graptolite : Cyrtograptus murchisoni
• Sponge : Ischadites koenigi
• Conodont : Ozarkodina typica
• Brachiopod : Pentamerus oblongus
• Graptolite : Petalograptus minor
• Brachiopod : Chonetes striatellus
• Cystoid : Lepocrinetes quadrifasciatus
• Bivalve : Pteronitella retroflexa
• Graptolite : Monograptus lobiferus
• Gastropod : Platyceras haliotis
• Crinoid : Sagenocrinites expansus
• Brachiopod : Atrypa reticularis