The first occurrence of a fossil asteroid from the Upper Ordovician Grant Lake Limestone in Bath County, east-central Kentucky, is reported. Although incompletely exposed, long, slender, columnar arms, disk-shaped adambulacral plates, and limited data on the more aboral skeleton indicate assignment to the family Urasterellidae (Asteroidea; Echinodermata). The limestone slab bearing the fossil is part of a sequence of storm deposits, or tempestites, which comprise the upper part of the Grant Lake Limestone. The asteroid likely was picked up in a storm, transported, and deposited in the muddy sands that settled out after the storm. Although possibly partially dismembered, skeletal plates are essentially in life positions and buried without significant tissue decay nor discovery by burrowing scavengers, presence of the latter documented by texture of the enclosing sediment.
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2 August 2024
A Fossil Urasterellid Asteroid (Asteroidea; Echinodermata) from the Upper Ordovician (Katian) Grant Lake Limestone in Bath County, east-central Kentucky, U.S.A.
Frank R. Ettensohn
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Asteroidea (Echinodermata)
east-central Kentucky
storm deposits
Upper Ordovician
Urasterellid starfish