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SUPERBLY DETAILED MIDDLE CAMBRIAN FOSSIL SPONGES FROM THE FAMOUS MARJUM FORMATION Marjum Formation - Millard County, Utah, USA MIDDLE CAMBRIAN PERIOD: 500 million years ago Slightly younger than the famous Burgess Shale fauna, the Marjum Formation produces a diverse array of Middle Cambrian invertebrates that shed light upon the wondrous variety of life that existed during the time called the Cambrian Explosion. The Cambrian Explosion is an extremely early period of life on earth that baffles evolutionary scientists due to the enormous number of astonishingly specialized organisms that existed all at once with no prior developmental stages. This is a sea sponge fossil from that period of early life during the Cambrian Explosion. The specimen shows several Diagoniella sp. sponges with their diagonally running grids of arranged spicules. Diagoniella is a hexactinellid sponge and its diagonal anatomy is unusual compared to square grid sponges which are typical of compared to square grid hexactinellid sponges. This was a delicate sponge attached to the sea floor by a thinly-stranded root tuft that rarely, if ever, shows in the fossil record. The preservation of such fossils as these are rare as most soft-bodied invertebrate life from so long ago is seldom preserved in stone. Slab of stone is unbroken and of a nice size for an impressive display. NO REPAIR OR FABRICATION!
Sponges belong to the scientific group called PORIFERA. These
creatures have an origin that dates back to over 500 million years ago.
Sponges are extremely primitive creatures that live attached to the
ocean floor, in some cases, at extreme depths. They are one of the
earliest known examples of coordination between cells of differing
functions in an organism. Their bodies are made up of a porous
covering over a skeleton composed of calcium or silicon. The
skeleton and its spicules form a latticework whereby water is drawn into
the sponge body. Oxygen and food is filtered out and the water is
expelled either out the upper or outer surface of the sponge.
Flagellae beat inside the main hollow tube to keep the water circulating
within the body. Fossil sponges have been found dating back to the
Lower Cambrian while associated fossilized body parts have been found in
Pre-Cambrian deposits.
Due to their structure,
fossils of sponges are almost always found in very poor states of
preservation and in fragments. SUPERB INTACT ANATOMICAL DETAIL SHOWING THE DIAGONAL LINES OF THE BODY 5" to 4.9" overall $225 IX001 INCLUDES STAND Actual Item - One Only |
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