2 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 76 



HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 



In connection with studies upon the Inadunate division of the 

 fossil crinoids, I have from time to time made notes upon a number 

 of rare or Httle known forms of which our knowledge has been in- 

 creased by discoveries made since the time of the original descriptions. 

 One of these is the singular type placed by Wachsmuth and Springer 

 (Revision of the Palaeocrinoidae, pt. 3, 1886, p. 267) under the 

 family name Catillocrinidae — highly specialized, and widely dif- 

 ferentiated from other known forms, although evident lines of 

 descent leading to it have been pointed out by Bather in 1893 and 

 1900, and by Jaekel in 1895. 



As originally defined, the family consisted of only two genera, 

 from the Devonian and the Lower Carboniferous, of Europe and 

 America respectively. It is now increased by a third, described by 

 Professor Wanner from the island of Timor, by which the geo- 

 graphic range of this peculiar crinoid type is enormously extended, 

 and, if the present determination of its horizon as Permian should 

 stand, its occurrence is brought down to a far later age than was 

 before suspected. 



The chief development of the type embraced in this family took 

 place in the genus Catillocrinus, from the American Lower Carbonif- 

 erous, through which it has an almost unbroken stratigraphic range 

 in a succession of six species, admitting of interesting comparative 

 studies. It was recognized by the pioneer geologist and paleontolo- 

 gist, Troost, in the course of researches covering a period of fifteen 

 years ending in 1849, when he proposed the name of the genus with 

 its type species, C. tennesseeae, in a " List of the Crinoids of Tennes- 

 see," read at the meeting of the American Association for Advance- 

 ment of Science for that year, and published in the Proceedings under 

 date of 1850. As the " List " was not accompanied by any descrip- 

 tions, the names were without validity ; some were validated through 

 subsequent publication by other authors, with credit to Troost, but 

 many of them were superseded and lost. Troost prepared a mono- 

 graph containing full descriptions and figures of his crinoid genera 

 and species, for which he was never able to secure publication, and 

 which remained in the MS stage until 1909, when it was issued by 

 the National Museum as Bulletin 64, edited by Miss Elvira Wood. 



The description on which the genus and its type species must rest 

 for their names and validity is that of Shumard, published in his 

 Catalogue of Paleozoic Fossils, St. Louis, 1866, p. 358. It was 

 based upon specimens from Button Mould Knob in Kentucky ; but 



