HYPSOCRINUS, A NEW GENUS OF CR1NOIDS FROM THE 



DEVONIAN. 



BY FRANK SPRINGER AND ARTHUR W. SLOCOM. 



Among the fossils collected by the junior author from the Hamilton 

 shales, at Bethany, New York, was a Crinoid, which was found in 

 the railway cut about one and one half miles west of the station of 

 East Bethany. This locality is more fully described in another 

 paper.* As this Crinoid, a single specimen of which was found, did 

 not seem referable to any known genus, it was submitted to the 

 senior author for his opinion, and as a result of his examination, it 

 was deemed advisable to describe and illustrate it under our joint 

 names. A very pronounced asymmetry, marked by a very unequal 

 gibbosity at one side, induced at first the suspicion that the specimen 

 might be abnormal. But it was found on examination to be in a re- 

 markably fine state of preservation, the surface being in perfect con- 

 dition, free from matrix, so as to show all its characters most clearly, 

 without any artificial cleaning. Every suture was distinct and well 

 marked, so there could be no doubt of the exact arrangement of the 

 calyx plates. This being so, the question arose, if it is an abnormal 

 specimen, to what species or genus does it, or might it, belong? No 

 answer could be found to this question, and we have therefore con- 

 cluded that the only proper course is to propose a new genus for its 

 reception. The specimen is unique, nothing at all approaching it 

 having ever been found, to the knowledge of the authors, in the 

 Hamilton collections that have been made at various localities in 

 this country, or in equivalent rocks in Europe. We hope that col- 

 lectors will be on the look-out for it hereafter, and that if other speci- 

 mens should come to light, we may be informed of the fact. 



HYPSOCRINUS gen. nov. 

 ('><Jh, high, z/>tW, lily.) 

 An inadunate, monocyclic Crinoid, with two or more compound 

 radials. Basals five. Radials five, of which the right posterior, 



* Field Columbian Museum Publication, Geological series, Vol. II, p. 258. 



267 



