A Pictorial Atlas of Fossil Remains, consisting of coloured illustrations selected from Parkinson's "Organic remains of a former world," and Artis's "Antediluvian phytology."

by Gideon Algernon Mantell

Plate LI.

PLATE LI.

Fossil Crinoidea, or Lily-shaped Animals.

Fig. 1. Part of the receptacle of the "Nave Encrinite" of Mr. Parkinson (Actinocrinus, of Miller). Mountain limestone.

Fig. 2. A portion of the receptacle of a "Rose Encrinite" (Rhodocrinus), viewed from the base.

Fig. 3. The "Nave Encrinite" (Actinocrinus triacontadactylus, or thirty-fingered, of Miller), from the mountain limestone. This is a good example of the structure of the receptacle in this group of Crinoideans, which is distinguished by the arms passing off at right angles from the periphery of the receptacle, like the spokes of a wheel; whence the name, Nave Encrinite. The upper part is covered by closely adapted plates, and the buccal aperture or mouth is situated at the side. The stem of this group is thickly beset with side-arms. (Fig. 7 is a very small detached one.) The arms are numerous (amounting to thirty in the species figured), and of great length; these subdivide into jointed filaments of extreme minuteness. Slabs of limestone are often entirely covered with them, and many layers are wholly made up of their aggregated remains. The plates of the receptacle are generally highly ornamented: in one species the sculpturing so closely resembles that of the Marsupites ornatus of the chalk, that it was with difficulty I convinced Mr. Parkinson that the latter did not possess a stem, and therefore was not an Actinocrinite.[46]

[46] See Medals of Creation, p. 325; Wonders of Geology, p. 664; Miller's Crinoidea, p. 94.

Figs. 4, & 5. Portions of receptacles of Actinocrinites.