Crinoid Holdfast Bulb Replica

Description

Crinoid Holdfast Bulb Replica – A few species were bottom bobbers and floaters. The Crinoid Holdfast Blub Replica measures 3.7 wide by 4.0 height and they are museum quality polyurethane resin replicas. Our precise plant fossils can be used as a teaching tool for Paleobotany, museum exhibits, home décor or office décor.

These unique crinoids are believed to have floated with the currents with the calyx (head) facing down. The Lobolith was chambered and filled with some form of gas produced by the crinoid. The gas caused the crinoid to float and could probably be regulated to allow the crinoid to move up and down in the water column.

Holdfasts vary in shape and form depending on both the species and the substrate type. The holdfasts of organisms that live in muddy substrates often have complex tangles of root-like growths.

These projections are called haptera and similar structures of the same name are found on lichens. The holdfasts of organisms that live in sandy substrates are bulb-like and very flexible, such as those of sea pens, thus permitting the organism to pull the entire body into the substrate when the holdfast is contracted.

The holdfasts of organisms that live on smooth surfaces (such as the surface of a boulder) have flattened bases which adhere to the surface.

The organism derives no nutrition from this intimate contact with the substrate, as the process of liberating nutrients from the substrate requires enzymatically eroding the substrate away, thereby increasing the risk of organism falling off the substrate.

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