| Eocrinoidea Fossil range: Cambrian - Silurian |
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 Eocrinoid holdfasts (Middle Ordovician, Utah)
 Colourful reconstruction of Gogia ojenai
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Class Eocrinoidea ("dawn crinoids"). Eocrinoids existed between the Early Cambrian and Late Silurian periods. Class Eocrinoidea is the earliest known group of stalked,arm-bearing echinoderms. Eocrinoids were the most common echinoderms during the Cambrian. The eocrinoids were an experimental paraphyletic group within the echinoderms. The eocrinoids may have been ancestral to six other classes: Rhombifera, Diploporita, Coronoidea, Blastoidea, Parablastoidea, and Paracrinoidea. The earliest eocrinoids had a short holdfast and irregularly structured plates. Later forms had a fully developed stalk with regular rows of plates. The eocrinoids were sessile benthic suspension feeders. (Prothero,2004)
References
External links
- Palaeos on Eocrinoids
- Evolutionary palaeoecology of early epifaunal echinoderms: Response to ...
- Cambrian explosion with Eocrinoid information
- Prothero, D.R.,2004, Bringing Fossils to Life; An Introduction to Paleobiology (2 ed.):New York, The McGraw-Hill companies, p324
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