270 



joints is pointed at top, and being concave, embraces the lower con- 

 vex part of the next above it; these are likewise furnished on their 

 concave side with two rows of suckers, clasping together ; they secure 

 their prey with these opposite claws or fingers *." 



The specimen here described was in the museum of the late Dr. 

 Hunter, which has been lately transferred to the University of Glas- 

 gow. Another specimen, apparently of the same species, was also in 

 the museum of John Hunter, Esq. and is now in the possession of 

 the Royal College of Surgeons, of London. 



By the discovery of these valuable remains, it has been ascertained, 

 that recent animals exist, which are at least of the same genus with 

 the pentacrinites whose remains have so long engaged the attention of 

 the curious. It does not, however, appear certain, from the opportu- 

 nities which have hitherto occurred of making the necessary compari- 

 son, that either the specimen of the recent animal of Mad. Bois- 

 jourdaine, or those which we have in this country, can be considered 

 as being of the same species with those with whose fossil remains we 

 are acquainted. The difference between the Briarsean pentacrinite 

 and the recent pentacrinus is very evident, not only in the formation 

 of the pelvis, but in the much greater number of the vertebral pro- 

 cesses and tentacula in the former than in the latter. The fossil re- 

 mains of the pentacrinite, which chiefly abound in Gloucestershire, 

 Warwickshire, and Yorkshire, are in too imperfect and uncon- 

 nected a state to admit of any comparison with the recent animal, 

 which can lead to any important decision. 



But it indeed appears from the superior part of a pentacrinite, 

 slightly sketched, Plate XIX. Fig. 2, and copied from the fifty-se- 

 cond volume of the Philosophical Transactions, that the pentacri- 

 nite of Gloucestershire must have materially differed from the recent 

 pentacrinus ; the latter not appearing to be capable of being con- 



* Philosophical Transactions, Vol. LII. Part I. p, 357. 



