Canceled: The Astonishing Architecture of Fossil Starfish

All UT events are cancelled for the remainder of the spring semester due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Colin Sumrall, associate professor in the UT Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, will present “The Astonishing Architecture of Fossil Starfish” Friday, February 14.

In his presentation, Sumrall will explore fossil echinoderms (sea stars and allies). He will discuss their use as building stones; the complex structure of their skeleton, which may have as many as two million elements; the microstructure of the elements that is both complex and beautiful; and the lattice structure of the calcite mineral from which the skeleton is built.