The animal, fossilized about 150 million years ago, was discovered in Ethiopia in very good condition, said Mariusz Salamon, a researcher at the University of Katowice.
The extinct species was named Ausichicrinites zelenskyyi to "pay tribute to the courage of the Ukrainian president who defended free Ukraine," said the scientist.
Sea lilies (crinoids) living in the depths of the sea belong to the echinoderms, like starfish, and hundreds of species are known.
The crinoid found in Ethiopia has 10 arms and claw-like appendages. According to the discovery, published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, this is the first sea lily fossil from the Jurassic period on the African continent.
Sea lilies are among the most ancient organisms in the oceans and are also called living fossils because their earliest representatives appeared in the paleozoic period, 480 million years ago, long before the dinosaurs.
MTI
Photo: MTI/EPA/Ukrainian Presidential Press Office
