A TERTIARY CRINOID FROM THE WEST INDIES. 



By Frank Springer, 



0/ the United States National Museum. 



In the year 1922 there were submitted to me by Dr. Wendell P. 

 Woodring, of the Haitian Geological Survey, some fragmentary 

 crinoidal remains discovered during a cooperative reconnaissance of 

 the Republic of Haiti, which upon examination proved to belong to 

 the pentacrinid genus Balanocrinus Agassiz in Desor. The fossils 

 were derived from strata of early Miocene age in the interior of the 

 island. 



The occurrence is of interest as being the second one of this genus 

 recorded from North America, the first having been described by me 

 in 1922 from Tamaulipas. Mexico, as Balanocrinus mexkanus, based 

 upon material discovered by Dr. L. W. Stephenson, of the Geologi- 

 cal survey.^ That species, however, is from Upper Cretaceous rocks, 

 so that by the present occurrence the geological range of this Euro- 

 pean genus in the Western Hemisphere is greatly extended. The 

 known range of Balanocrinus in Europe is from Triassic to Miocene, 

 most of the species having been described under the name Pen- 

 ta-crinus. The latest occurrence there is in the upper Helvetian of 

 the middle Miocene in Piedmont, Italy, evidenced by stems described 

 by Noelli in 1900 as Pentacrhnis Jorioli,- and referred by Bather to 

 BalanocHnus in the Zoological Record for 1900 (p. 143). 



The beds in which the crinoid remains under consideration were 

 found belong to the Artibonite formation of the lower Miocene, 

 equivalent to the lower part of the Yaque group of the Dominican 

 Republic. This has been correlated by Cooke and Vaughan with 

 the Burdigalian of the European time divisions.^ A full account 

 by Messrs. Woodring, Brown, and Burbank of the Tertiary strati- 

 graphy of Haiti, containing a notation of the present discovery, 

 will appear in a forthcoming report.* 



1 Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 61, art. 5, pp. 1-4. 



^ Contribuzione alio studio dei Crinoidi Tertiari del Piemonte, Atti. Soc. Ital. Sci. Nat., 

 vol. 39, 1900, p. 28, pi. 1, flgs. 33, 34. See also Bather, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 8, 

 vol. 20, Doc. 1917, p. 405. 



'Geological Roconnaissance of the Dominican Republic Memoirs, vol. 1, 1921, pp. .57, 

 65. and 96. 



♦Geology of the Republic of Haiti: Republic of Haiti Geol. Survey (awaiting publica- 

 tion » . 



No. 2516 — Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. 65, Art. 3. 



1 



