Click on images to enlarge, found in Benton county, Arkansas, Boone limestone formation
There it sat, so huge that I didn't think it was a fossil.
I found some very nice limestone in a ditch just north of Bentonville. It was in many layers, a bunch of individually formed rocks ranging from palm-sized to perhaps three feet around, all an inch or three thick. I found a bunch of nice crinoid stems and a piece of a calyx. However, everything was typically crinoid-sized.
There were a few thick slabs that lined the bottom of the wash, and this puppy was sticking out like a sore thumb. However, I had looked at it two or three times without recognizing it as a crinoid stalk.
However, I finally looked closer and about jumped out of my skin when I recognized the five-sided interior as a crinoid fossil. I had to return the next day with a sledge hammer in order to liberate it from the 7" thick slab. It was sticking out of the end, having sat there for eons, waiting for me to liberate it.
It broke loose cleanly, and went home with me. Later, I began freeing it from its matrix. This flavor of limestone is crystallized inside, so it wasn't completely clean in its escape from the rock. But the body held up very nicely, and many of the little stalks that were attached to it glued back almost perfectly.
For someone who is used to finding crinoid stalks the size of pencils, this massive critter caused a real rush!
Anybody out there able to identify this monster for me?
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