A collection of pelmatozoans (Echinodermata) from the Lady Burn Starfish Beds (Upper Ordovician, Katian), SW Scotland

Abstract

A new collection of crinoids and rhombiferans from the Upper Ordovician (Katian) Lady Burn Starfish Beds of SW Scotland is small, yet contains several significant specimens. Two species hitherto known only from single specimens, the dendrocrinid cladid Cupulocrinus drummuckensis Kolata and the pisocrinid disparid Eocicerocrinus sevastopuloi Donovan, are represented by crowns retaining the proximal column. The latter species is the earliest member of an order that is otherwise known only from the Silurian and Devonian. Unusual preservation of the monobathrid camerate Macrostylocrinus cirrifer Ramsbottom, in which the radices (roots) of the proximal column are lost, but the delicate pinnules of the arms are preserved, is problematic. A long, contorted and gracile pluricolumnal is probably derived from a disparid, possibly E. sevastopuloi .