Organism · Echinoderms
Pentremites godoni
Source time context (not species duration) · ≈ 340–320 Ma
Inferred life reconstruction
Pentremites godoni
Overview
Pentremites godoni is a Carboniferous marine animal resembling a flower bud. A hard body sits atop a stalk. Despite its plant-like appearance, it is a blastoid, an echinoderm like sea urchins and starfish.[2][4]
Loading illustration…
Key facts
The five rows on the bud are feeding areas, not petals. In life, numerous slender appendages attached along their edges. Adding these delicate structures to the body commonly preserved as a fossil changes its appearance.[1][2][4]
Time and place
It is known from Carboniferous strata around 340–320 million years ago. It can also be encountered among Early Carboniferous fossils from present-day Illinois, USA. Stalked echinoderms inhabited the ancient sea there.[3][4]
The time range describes source context, not the complete duration of this species.
Size, form and skeleton
Hard plates form a bud-like body. Five feeding areas lie on it, with a stalk extending below. The different thicknesses of slender feeding appendages, body, and stalk can be examined together.[1][2]
Loading illustration…
Habitat and reproduction
Blastoids are marine animals that filter small food particles carried by water. Slender appendages collect food and pass it to food grooves on the body. A flower-like upright form contains the life of an animal using water currents.[4][2]
Fossil discovery
Pentremites godoni from Illinois is also presented in university fossil collections. A 1985 study analyzed growth stages and relationships among Pentremites together. Comparing small bodies at several sizes connects stories of growth and evolution.[1][4]
References
- Waters, Horowitz & Macurda1985 — Growth and evolution of Pentremites
- Bauer — Fossil Focus: Blastoids
- Paleobiology Database — Fossil occurrence records for Pentremites
- College of Wooster — Pentremites godoni from the Carboniferous of Illinois
- Qiao & Shen2012 — Late Mississippian brachiopods of the Daba Mountains
- International Commission on Stratigraphy — Geological timescale
- Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology — Gigantoproductus
- Paleobiology Database — Fossil occurrence records for Pentremites
- College of Wooster — Pentremites godoni from the Carboniferous of Illinois
- Bauer — Fossil Focus: Blastoids
Research questions
Do young and mature bodies have the same proportions? Researchers compare how body form changes with growth. Reading changes during individual growth alongside differences between species is one approach to blastoid research.[1]
Observation
Move your gaze from the five feeding areas to the slender appendages and stalk below. Picture an animal with a bud-like form collecting food from seawater.[1][2]
Related organisms
Gigantoproductus giganteusBrachiopodsSource time context (not species duration) · ≈ 359–299 MaA brachiopod and a blastoid from Carboniferous seas
Gigantoproductus and Pentremites are Carboniferous marine animals from different regions. Read material from the western Daba Mountains of present-day China alongside that from Illinois, USA, and examine a brachiopod’s two valves separately from a blastoid’s stalk and body.