ne Ohio ^ACaturalist, 



PUBLISHED BY 



The Biotogkat Club of the Ohio State Uni'versity. 

 Volume XIV. JANUARY, 1914. No. 3. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



■Williams— A Starfish Found in the Whitewater Division of the Richmond on Blue 



(reek, Adams County, Ohio 221 



HiNE— Taljanus longus, fulvulus and sagax 225 



Shidelee— The Upper Richmond Beds of the Cincinnati Group 229 



Williams— Solanaeeae of Ohio 235 



A STARFISH FOUND IN THE WHITEWATER DIVISION OF 



THE RICHMOND ON BLUE CREEK, 



ADAMS COUNTY, OHIO. 



Stephen R. Williams. 



The fossil to be described was not found in place but the shales 

 nearby yielded Byssonychiarichmondensisand Hebertella sinuata. 

 The Clinton boundary was located on the same branch of the 

 stream at an elevation (estimated) of forty feet above the point 

 of discovery. 



The specimen consists of a part of the disc and of two neigh- 

 boring arms of a starfish. The arms of this starfish were split 

 vertically along the middle of the ambulacral grooves, separating 

 the pairs of ambulacral plates one from the other. Enough of the 

 disc remained to connect the two half arms together and no more. 

 Fortunately the aboral side of the fragment of disc contains the 

 madreporic body. 



The preservation of the fossil is ideal. Except for a certain 

 amount of crushing of the aboral skeletal wall together the skeleton 

 shows much as a similar section of a recent starfish does. 



Using the dimensions of the two part-arms and disc as a basis 

 for measurement one can reconstruct the w^hole animal. I esti- 

 mate that the starfish when living was approximately four inches 

 in diameter from end to end of the rays on opposite sides. 



The remains of the disc and longer ann are 40 m. m. long, the 

 disc and shorter arm 35 m. m. 



The pairs of ambulacral pieces which formed the ambulacral 

 grooves in the specimen must have been directly opposite each 

 other. This is indicated both by the shaping of the free ends of 

 each ambulacral piece and by some fragmentary remains on the 

 tips of some of the ambulacral pieces on the longest ann. These 

 are very probably ends broken from the plates which formed the 

 other half of the ambulacral groove. 



