The fossilized remains of an isolated but once-thriving assemblage of the brittle starfish Furcaster cf. F. leptosoma(?) (Salter, 1857) record a singular event in the succession of late Devonian (Famennian?) marine life. In similar cases of fossil starfish mortality reported elsewhere, the cause of death was cited as suffocation due to rapid burial. In order to construct a paradigm which reflects the circumstances before and after the destruction of the assemblage in question, trace elements in the rock matrix were analyzed and correlated with neontologic data relative to important elements of the community and its environment.

The circumstantial evidence...