Eocrinoid Fossils

Eocrinoids were one of the earliest groups of echinoderms and are believed to be closely related to many other groups including crinoids, cystoids, and blastoids. They first appeared in the Early Cambrian and survived until the Late Silurian. Despite the name “dawn crinoids”, they may not be directly ancestral to the true crinoids, but crinoids instead evolved from the ancestors of Eocrinoids.