: 
FOSSIL OSSICULA OF STAR-FISHES. 303 
In the Comatulide, the arms are distinct from the body ; 
these animals therefore closely approach the Crinoideans: in 
the true Star-fish, the angular processes, or arms, are an in- 
tegral part of the body, containing a portion of the stomach, 
ova, &c., and are furnished with rows of pseudopodia. 
Fossil Comatulee have been discovered in the Solenhofen 
slate; and it is not improbable that some of the numerous 
Crinoideans may be Asteriade in the early stages of develop- 
ment. 
In another group, Asteriadz, (named Ophiure or Serpent- 
stars,) the rays are long and slender, and without grooves or 
tentacula, and are distinct from the body. These organs 
are extremely flexuous, and in some species beset with spines, 
and enable the animal to seize and entwine round its prey. 
The mouth is central, and there is an ovarian aperture at 
the base of each of the five arms. 
Though the fossil Star-fishes comprise many extinct genera, 
they belong to the same families as the recent; and Coma- 
tule, Ophiure, and Asteriadze, occur in the Lias, Oolite, and 
Chalk, in considerable numbers. Professor Edward Forbes 
has determined many of the British -species, and it is to be 
hoped, will publish a monograph on the Fossil Asteriadee, 
as a companion to his delightful work on the recent Star- 
fishes. 
Fossit OssicuLa OF STAR-FISHES.—From the immense 
number of little bones which enter into the composition of 
the skeleton of a single Star-fish, and which are but slightly 
held together after the death of the animal and the decom- 
eminent naturalist first observed pedunculated Comatule in the Cove 
of Cork. When this discovery was first made known to me, I sus- 
pected that the Marsupite might have been pedunculated when young; 
but as very small specimens of this Crinoid are equally free from all 
traces of a stem as the adult, I was led to relinquish that opinion : 
still the collector, when searching for Crinoidean remains, should 
bear in mind the possibility of this having been the case. 
