Starfish thrived throughout the Ordovician, and are one of Earth's most successful species, having survived to the present day. Despite this fact, fossil specimens of this quality and detail are quite rare as starfish readily disintegrate after death. This virtually complete and intact specimen from an extinct species of starfish lived in the Ordovician seas approximately 467 mi𓆉llion years ago, in an area that is nღow on the periphery of the Sahara desert.