Pentremites (Carboniferous).

Pentremites is a common blastoid and shows all the typical features of the group. The most
common blastoid, Pentremites, from Mississippian rocks of Iowa. Like most echinoderms,
blastoids were protected by a set of interlocking plates of calcium carbonate, forming the theca.
Blastoids show a very regular and tightly integrated plate arrangement, which is in part
responsible for their abundance as fossils: the theca held together after tha animal died. The theca
of Pentremites has a rather nut-like shape, and fossil Pentremites are sometimes inaccurately
called "fossil nuts" or "fossil hickory nuts"