Many museums and amateur collectors display these delicate and exquisite fossils. Cut and polished crinoidal limestone, which has both beauty and is used as a building stone in many parts of the world. Crinoids provide evidence of organic evolution and continuing changes to the geography, environments and ecosystems of our planet. As fossils, they help document the drifting of the continents as well as the creation and obliteration of ancient seas. The Class Crinoidea survived several mass extinctions over the past 530 million years.
Crinoids are, thus, one of the most successful forms of life on earth.
Their continued existence demonstrates both the tenacity and the fragility of life. Thanks to Glenn Crossman, Dr. Kraig Derstler, Robert Howell, Dr. Thomas Kammer and Dr. N. Gary Lane. Inc. Illustrations Dorothy Sigler Norton, Science Graphics.