104 



OUR COMMON' BRITISH FOSSILS. 



not more distinctively an animal than any species of 

 Encrinite is, no matter what shape the latter may 

 assume. But the history of Encrinites has been 

 involved in a good deal of obscurity, from which it is 

 now emerging. This was partly due to the fact that, 

 a few years ago, few or no real Encrinites were known 

 to be in existence, and none had been thoroughly 

 dissected. The dredging expeditions of Carpenter, 

 Wyville Thomson, and others 

 brought to light several species. 

 One called Rhizocrinus lofote- 

 nesis, found living in the deeper 

 parts of the sea, between the 

 extreme north of Scotland and 

 Iceland, belongs perhaps to the 

 same genus as that found fossil 

 in our chalk strata. This re- 

 cently discovered genus of living 

 Crinoids has been well ex- 

 amined, and much light has 

 consequently been thrown upon 

 the structures of fossil Encrinites of all ages. 



Cuvier, and many naturalists after him, including 

 even Agassiz, grouped the Encrinites among that 

 hodge-podge of marine objects called Radiata. This 

 term was about as expressive of any real facts, or 

 mutual relationships, as the names of the orders and 

 classes of plants under the Linnsean system of botany 

 were to the plants themselves. The order Radiata was 



Fig. 86. — Body of Act'tnooinus, 

 showing proboscidal anus on 

 summit, and articulating places 

 of the arms. 



