Scientific Illustration

rhamphotheca:

The Ocean Through Time:  Mississippian Marine Habitat

(359 - 318 million years ago)

Crinoids (echinoderms related to sea stars and sea urchins) dominate the Paleozoic shallow water habitat in this illustration. They evolved a variety of stalk heights, which enabled them to capture food at different levels above the sea floor. The base of their stalks was modified to anchor the animal securely in the soft sediment.

Crinoids were relative skyscrapers in the community, sometimes towering up to two meters (6.5 feet). Lacy bryozoans occupied a lower level. Below them, huge numbers of brachiopods monopolized the muddy bottom. Sharks cruised above these crinoid forests, while smaller bony fishes weaved among the crinoid stalks.

(CREDIT: Smithsonian Institution)

(via: Smithsonian Ocean Portal)

wherethebeachgirllives:

Crinoid Engraving

Where Indian Beads Come From

The phylogeny of extant Crinoidea

paleoillustration:

shallow marine ecosystem during the early Carboniferous Period (359-318 million years ago)

“… Crinoids include the camerates Dizygocrinus (under attack, bottom center, left) and the spiny Dorycrinus (bottom center, right), and the cladids Decadocrinus (bottom left) and Abrotocrinus (bottom right). Fishes include the cochliodont Deltoptychius (bottom center), the petalodont Janassa (left of center, ventral view), the chondrenchelyiform Chondrenchelys (far left), and the actinopterygian Amphicentrum (upper right).” 

Illustration by Robert Nichols

via: YubaNet

(via rhamphotheca)

moschops911:

Paleozoic marine life, by Alice B. Woodward for the book Evolution in the Past, 1912

museumofnaturalhistory:

Crinoid Meadow (by Koston Photography)

(via )

oldbookillustrations:

Crinoids, sea urchin (cidaridae), and Brittle star.

Paul Flanderky, from Brehms Tierleben (Brehm’s animal life) first volume, under the direction of Alfred Edmund Brehm, Leipzig & Vienna, 1918.

(Source: archive.org)

(via unnaturalist)

Crinoids by BioDivLibrary on Flickr.

Manuel d’actinologie ou de zoophytologie /.
Paris ;F.G. Levrault,1834-[1836]..
biodiversitylibrary.org/page/9321297

Encrine d’Europe by BioDivLibrary on Flickr.

Manuel d’actinologie ou de zoophytologie /.
Paris ;F.G. Levrault,1834-[1836]..
biodiversitylibrary.org/page/9321293