This is Throwback Thursday #271. In these, we look back into the past at ESCONI specifically and Earth Science in general. If you have any contributions, (science, pictures, stories, etc …), please send them to esconi.info@gmail.com. Thanks! email:esconi.info@gmail.com.

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I came across this story a few days ago in a Facebook post by Gus Kramer.  Back in 1968, his brother David J. Kramer, who was a graduate degree student in Geology at Northern Illinois University, found a rare Jurassic echinod (sea urchin) in the Sundance Formation near Cody, Wyoming.  He sent the fossil specimen into the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.  It took a few years, but he eventually received a response—in a letter, no less—from the Smithsonian acknowledging the find and thanking him for the submission. It was a rare Jurassic echinod (sea urchin), but it had not yet been formally described.  That might still be the case… Does anyone out there know what species of sea urchin this might be?

This invertebrate animal lived some 150 million years ago as the Sundance Formation dates to the Middle to Upper Jurassic.  During that time, Wyoming and surrounding states were under the Western Interior Seaway.  This was a time before the rise of the Rocky Mountains.  The Sundance Formation is known for its diverse marine fauna, including marine reptiles, cephalopods (like belemnites), bivalves (like oysters), and various echinoderms, including echinoids (sea urchins). 

Here’s the Herald News article from April 11, 1971.

A letter from the Smithsonian Institution United States National Museum in Washington, D. C., has acknowledged a fossil found by David J. Kramer of 821 N. Center St. as “a very rare Jurassic echinoid.”

Kramer found the fossil at the Sundance Formation near Cody, Wyo. on a field trip with North ern Illinois University in 1968. He submitted it for identification soon after, but due to the institution’s backlog of samples it took three years to accurately identify the fossil.

“Echinoid” classifies the fossil as a sea urchin and Jurassic refers to a period from 135 to 190 million years ago. During that time parts of Wyoming were a large shallow sea and the echinoid lived and died there along with small squid, primitive shellfish and other sea life, the report states.

Over the centuries the sea floor became covered with more sediment, was compressed into rock and finally uplifted. Geologists call this layer the Sundance formation.

The fossils of squid and shellfish are plentiful throughout the formation, but echinoid fossils are very rare. The letter from the institution states there are only three or four specimens of this kind in existence.

This particular fossil has not been given a species name yet because not enough specimens have been found to make a thorough study and classification, it was explained.

Kramer, the son of Mr. and Mrs. August Kramer, received a master’s degree in geology in 1970 from Northern Illinois University.

Thanks for allowing us to post this, Gus!