Graptolite - Group (Ref 3)

Actual Fossil

Graptolites

from  Abereiddy Bay, Southwest Wales,

444 Million Years, Ordovician period.

Graptolite fossils are extinct marine animal very early in evolution, very much like their contemporaries the Trilobites.  They first came apparent during the Cambrian period, 542 to 488 million years ago, with the records of their existence stored on black shale plates.  In 1992, a French oceanographer discovered living Graptolites on the sea floor off of New Caledonia, Australia