Shell Specimen: Sea Stars and Brittle Stars

“Shelling” is a fun for professional scientist and amateurs alike. A majority of the shells below are composed of the mineral aragonite CaCO3. Many of my modern or “recent” shells have fossil relatives in my Fossil Gallery. Below I have organized images and data of some of my sea shells.

Special thanks to Tina Petway, Lucy Clampet and Gary Kidder for giving me what I could not find.

Kingdom: Animalia – Phylum: Echinodermata – Superclass: Asterozoa – Class: Asteroidea

(sea stars formerly “starfish”)

Triassic to Holocene

Kingdom: Animalia – Phylum: Echinodermata – Superclass: Asterozoa – Class: Asteroidea

(brittle stars)

Ordovician to Holocene

Coming soon!

Data: Dance, S. Peter, Smithsonian Handbook: Shells, The photographic regognition guide to seashells of the world. A Dorling Kindersley Book.

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