Two little-known crinoids from the type area of the Devonian, south-west England

Abstract

There were few publications on the British Devonian Crinoidea between the last parts of the Reverend G.F. Whidborne’s monograph in the 1890s and 1900s and the revival of interest in these faunas in the 21st Century. The paper records two Devonian cladid crinoids collected in the 19th Century; neither was described nor illustrated hitherto. Both are in the collection of the Sedgwick Museum, Cambridge. These specimens are from the Lower Devonian (Emsian) Meadfoot Group (=‘Staddon Grits’) of New Cut, Lincombe Drive (=‘Lincombe Slates’), Torquay, south Devon. Parisocrinus? has been published in name. The cup is deformed and preserved as an internal mould; comparison with the diagnosis of the genus shows that Bather’s determination was questionable. Further, the oldest, confidently determined Parisocrinus is Middle Devonian. However, a second cladid, Vasocrinus sp., not recorded hitherto, is a partial external mould and seems to be correctly determined. A further specimen, on the same specimen board as Vasocrinus, preserves three parallel, pinnulate arms as moulds of the adoral surface; they are unlikely to be conspecific.