Crinoids (sea lilies) and brittle starfish

This hard block of sandstone is packed with crinoids (Balanocrinus gracilis) and starfish (the larger being Palaeocoma milleri, and the smaller, Hemieuryale lunaris). Such blocks are very occasionally found as loose boulders on the beach, and this one probably came from the Downcliff Sands. It takes many hours of skilled preparation to clean these fossils out of the rock.