Yesterday we took a geology hike with two guys from the Kansas Geological Survey. The hike took place on the Smoky Valley Ranch, owned and operated by the Nature Conservancy. We learned a lot about the history of the ranch in addition to the geology of the surrounding area. We then got a chance to look in the erosion areas for fossils. One young lady (maybe 9 years old!) found a sharks tooth. I stumbled onto something I could not identify. Bob and Rex came over to look and were shocked to see what I had found, the fossilized remains of an invertebrate creature, predecessor of the starfish and similar species. It has never been identified in this area nor in this strata. The fossil is approximately 65 million years old based on the layer it was associated with. I took photos for the geologists and sent them on to the guys today. They geo-tagged the post and made some mental notes about the location as well. As soon as I find out the real name of the fossil, I will add it to this post. For now, these are the images.
The name of the fossil is Uintacrinus, a crinoid, which is in the starfish family.
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