One of the things I love about creek walking is being able to find fossils. My eyes are constantly scanning the rocks for unusual shapes or patterns that may reveal a fossil. Finding and touching a fossil to me is like touching a piece of history. As a Bible believing Christian, I believe in creation and the world-wide flood. As such, I believe that fossils are only a little over 4000 years old, not millions of years.
One of the fossils I most often find by my creek is the crinoid or sea-lily. Though I’ve never found a whole specimen, I have founds hundreds of pieces of the stems. Some are mere fragments, some are longer pieces, but finding even a tiny piece makes me feel like a child again… excited about finding a treasure.
Crinoids are part of a large group of marine invertebrate animals called
echinoderms. Other echinoderms are starfish, brittle stars, sand dollars, and
sea urchins. Crinoids are unusual looking animals because they look more like
plants than animals, hence the name “sea lilies”. They remain attached to the
seafloor while they spread their arms to catch plankton from the seawater. The
most common and easily recognized part of the fossil crinoid is the columnals
that make up the stem or stalk. Today there are still some living relatives of
the fossil crinoids living in the deep ocean. |
| Inside skeleton of crinoid |
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| Many different sizes of crinoids |
Other fossils I have also found near my creek:
Some links to sites about fossils:
Paleontology Portal
Answers in Genesis
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