Description

Early Devonian

Hunsruck Shale

Bundenbach, Germany.

Jellyfish, Bundenbach.

65mm preserved in pyrite on 130mm slab from the famous Hunsruck Slates of the Devonian of Germany. Plectodiscus is thought to be a “By the Wind Sailor” (velellid hydrozoan), a type of jellyfish that floats at the surface of the water via a chitinous float like a pool toy. Unlike a pool toy, living species of velellids have a deadly sting and are voracious predators of fish and small marine creatures!

It was the Portuguese Man O’ War of the Devonian!