The earliest scientific descriptions of Chinese fossil echinoderms in a late nineteenth-century publication by Lajos Lóczy (Ludwig von Lóczy)

Abstract

Investigations into early scientific descriptions of fossil echinoderms from China confirmed the statement by Mu (1948) that the earliest such documentation was provided by Lóczy (1897, in Hungarian; 1899a, 1899b, in German). Lóczy's publication resulted from the Hungarian 1877–1880 expedition to East Asia led by Count Béla Széchenyi. It contains the earliest known scientific descriptions and illustrations of fossil echinoderms from China. A total of six echinoderm species, belonging to taxa of the Cystoidea, Crinoidea, and Echinoidea, from seven localities were described and illustrated in this work. Based on the German version (Lóczy, 1899a, 1899b), translations of the descriptions and figure captions of the fossil echinoderms into English are provided in order to make this significant report on Chinese fossil echinoderms accessible to a wider audience. The original illustrations of these fossil echinoderms are reproduced. Taxonomic and stratigraphic assignments are revised and discussed, and the modern names of the fossil localities are provided, in order to facilitate utilization of these data in modern palaeontological research.