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