Yzabelle Bostyn
A STARFISH fossil dating back 55 million years has been discovered in the Spanish pyrenees.
The Parque Nacional de Ordesa and Monte Perdido have been filled with excitement after a worker spotted a rare starfish fossil.
Dating back 55 million years, the exceptional find was located on an Eocene period rock in the park’s Añisclo valley.
Starfish fossils are incredibly rare due to the fragile nature of their exoskeletons, yet this exemplar fossil is almost perfect.
It was spotted by park ranger Carlos Serrano, who noticed a strange shape on a rock next to a water trough.
After realising what he had found, he took the rock to the visitor centre for further inspection.
Park managers then got in touch with the University of Zaragoza’s Natural History museum.
They then contacted Spain’s Cultural Heritage department who sent a specialist in invertebrate fossils to confirm the find, saying the starfish belonged to the goniasteroid group.
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The fossil was located on a slab of rock detached from a high altitude water trough.
It is thought the rocks used to construct the trough came from ancient glacial deposits formed by marine rocks.
In the Eocene period, the now mountainous area was under the sea.
However, it is just one of the amazing finds in the area such as the Ordesa-Vio crocodile.
The Pyrenees are known for their geology, with the Sobrabe-Pirineos Geopark conducting various paleontology studies.
