GONIASTER—-ASTERIAS. 307 
coarsely mamillato-punctate ; the ossicula of the disk hexa- 
gonal.* This species is common in the upper chalk. 
In Goniaster Mantelli, Lign. 98, the body is pentagonal, 
but the sides are curved, with projecting angles ; the ossicula 
of the disk are punctated. The superior intermediate mar- 
ginal plates are oblong, narrow, punctate, marginate, and six 
in number. t 
Specimens of these Goniasters are sometimes met with 
attached to a nodule of flint, in an extraordinary state of 
freshness ; sharp imprints of the external surface, the skeleton 
having perished, are also found in flints, and, rarely, casts in 
pyrites. The whetstone of Dorsetshire often bears distinct 
moulds of Goniasters. I have found ossicula of this form of 
Star-fish in the London Clay of the Isle of Sheppey. 
Asterias. Lign. 99.—The animals of this genus, of which 
the common Star-fish is the type, are stellate in form ; the 
rays are flat, and extend from the body, of which they are a 
prolongation—not mere appendages. They have deep grooves 
or furrows bordered by marginal plates, which are continued 
to the extremities. 
The Lias of Germany has yielded several species of Aste 
rias ; one of which is figured, Lign. 99. A very large species 
occurs in the Cornbrash of the Oolite of England. A magni- 
ficent specimen of Asterias arenicola (Goldfuss), from the 
calcareous grit, near Pickering, Yorkshire, measuring 10} 
inches from the extremity of one ray to that of another, is 
figured in the London Paleontological Journal, pl. xvii. 
The same work contains admirable figures of Ophiura Eger- 
tont, and Oph. senatu in flint, pl. xix.; Oph. Milleri in 
Staithes marlstone, and Oph. Murravi, pl. xx.; and two 
specimens of Oph. Millert on the same slab of Lias from 
Staithes, near Whitby, pl. viii. 
* Prof. Forbes, Dixon’s Cret. Foss. p. 331. + Ibid. p. 332. 
