Bargain, 9" Eocrinoid (Ascocystites) Plate - Ordovician

This is a plate of detailed Eocrinoids (Ascocystites sp.) collected near El Kaid Rami, Morocco. The reddish/orange coloration due the oxidization of iron pyrite is very beautiful and showy.
It comes with an acrylic display stand.

The piece is bargain priced, because it has several very visible repaired cracks.

Eocrinoids were an early group of echinoderms that lived between the Early Cambrian and Late Silurian periods. They had a stalk which attached them to the bottom of the ocean via a holdfast and were benthic suspension feeder which used their arms to move particles of food towards a mouth. They are believed to be ancestral to many other groups including crinoids and blastoids.