Victorian Fossils, Part VIII. 23 



Observations. — An extensive series of the above fossil was 

 collected by the first Victorian geological surveyors, from 

 Moonee Ponds Creek, Flemington, then comprised in " Royal 

 Park " ; these were deposited in the National Museum collection, 

 and bore the MS. name given by McCoy — " Taeniaster au- 

 stralis "^ McCoy also referred to these fossils in the Progress 

 Report of the Geological Survey of Victoria'^ under the same 

 MS. name, and they were reported to have come from Melbourne 

 and the Upper Yarra. The latter locality reference would 

 imply that these ophiurids also occurred in the Yeringian series. 

 I had, however, been unable to find any specimens of this group 

 in the Museum collections as from the Upper Yarra district until 

 quite recently, when two examples from the " Parish of Yering, 

 Sect. XII.," were discovered 



Whilst examining in detail the various fossils found in the 

 sandstone at Flemington their general negative character was 

 noticed ; and upon taking a wax impression from a remarkably 

 sharp sandstone cast of P. brisingoides, the shape of typical 

 protasterid ossicles was revealed, together with a deep sinuous 

 ventral canal. This impression satisfactorily explains the 

 presence of the " median ridge," the nature of which, Prof. 

 Gregory observed, is doubtful.^ Since the fossils appear to be 

 in the form of negative casts, the ossicle structure of the 

 arm requires a different explanation. Prof. Gregory, kindly 

 replying to a letter giving my own explanation of the 

 structure of this fossil, writes, under date July, 1906, as 

 follows : — " If the specimen can be interpreted as by your 

 drawing it becomes very much easier .... The sinuous ridge 

 I could not understand, and if it can be explained away so much 

 the better." 



Emended and Additional Description. 



As in P. biforis, Gregory,* the ambulacral ossicles consist of a 

 thick body and a curved wing, and are in some portions of the 



1 See Gregory op. cit., 1889, p. 26; also R. Etheridjje, Junr. Records Australian 

 Museum, vol. i., No. 10, 1891, p. 199. 



2 No. 1, 1874, p. 34. 



3 Geol. Mag., dec. iii., vol. vi., 1889, p. 2."^, fig. 2. 



4 Proc. Zool. Soc. (1896), 1897, p. 1033, woodcut, fig. 3. 



