FOSSIL STAR- FISHES AND SEA-URCHINS. 141 



Liassic species usually belong to the "brittle-stars," 

 and the commonest of these fossils is Ophiolepis Eger- 

 toni, found at Staithe, near Whitby ; and also abun- 

 dantly in various places in Dorsetshire, especially at 

 Seaborne. Specimens of this star-fish may be seen 

 in nearly every museum in England. 



Pretty little specimens of Ophiolepis are found in 

 the Lower Lias of Burton Passage, near Berkeley, 

 in Gloucestershire, A well-known fossil Oolite star- 

 fish is Ophioderma Egertoni^ abundant in the "star- 

 fish bed" at Down Cliffs, between Charmouth and 

 Bridport Harbour, in Dorsetshire. Astropecten is, 

 perhaps, the most beautiful of the fossil star-fishes 

 found in the Oolite, and fine specimens may be seen 

 in the museums at York and Scarborough. The 

 neighbourhood of the latter place has yielded them 

 in some numbers, and the young geologist may pos- 

 sibly be delighted by securing one for his own cabinet 

 if he patiently goes on splitting the large nodules 

 which fall out of the calcareous grit under Filey Cliff 

 (near Filey Brig). Astropecten is also found in the 

 Stonesfield Slate at Eyeford, Gloucestershire. Ophio- 

 coma occurs in the calc grit beneath the Kimmeridge 

 Clay, between Soundsfoot Castle, near Weymouth, 

 and the Portland Ferry bridge. The Upper Green- 

 sand at Blackdown, Devonshire, yields several fossil 

 star-fishes. 



The marginal plates or ossicles of star-fishes allied 

 to the cushion-stars (Goniaster) are not uncommon 



