4 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 76 



of a type which as now known ranges from the Devonian (or even 

 Silurian in its direct ancestral form) through the Lower Carbonif- 

 erous perhaps to the Permian. The relations and evolutionary stages 

 of this type have been extensively discussed by Bather (1893, Crin. 

 Gotl., p. 25; Lankester Zool., pt. Ill, 1900, p. 150), and by Jaekel 

 (1895, Crin. Deutschl., p. 44). 



According to these authors, the line starts with Pisocrinus in the 

 Silurian, and, deriving through Calycanthocrinus in the Lower De- 

 vonian, evolves to Mycocrinus in the Middle Devonian of Germany, 

 in which the structural plan afterwards so strongly developed in 

 Catillocrinus of the American rocks was definitely estabUshed. 



Catillocrinus had been referred by Zittel (1879, Handb. Pal., I, 

 p. 348) and by De Loriol (1882, Pal. Franc, XI, p. 46) to the Piso- 

 crinidae ; and the relations of the genus v^^ith Calceocrinus (represent- 

 ing the present family Cremacrinidae) were pointed out by Wachs- 

 muth and Springer in 1886 (Rev. Ill, p. 267). Discussion of these 

 relations, or of the ancestral line, is not within the scope of this paper, 

 which is intended merely to furnish new and authentic information 

 upon the occurrence and structure of the type included in the family 

 Catillocrinidae as originally defined by Wachsmuth and Springer. 



A very notable addition to our knowledge of this type has been 

 made by Professor Wanner in his epoch-making treatise on the 

 Permian Echinoderms of Timor, Part I, published at Stuttgart under 

 date of 191 6, but not received in this country until 192 1, so that 

 many new genera proposed by him were unknown to American 

 paleontologists until nearly five years after the date of their publica- 

 tion. In this work he has described under the name Paracatillocrinus 

 a form which in some of the essentials combines the characters of 

 the Devonian and Carboniferous forms. Thus this type, after a 

 gap represented on this continent by the entire Pennsylvanian series 

 (Coal Measures and Upper Carboniferous) reappears in that far-ofif 

 region as part of a rich and varied fauna, in which post Devonian 

 representatives from the Lower Carboniferous to the Permian are 

 intermingled, and Mesozoic types anticipated, in a most amazing way. 



Acquisition of new material during the years subsequent to the 

 description by the earlier authors enables me more thoroughly to 

 illustrate the species heretofore described, to supply some structural 

 details previously unknown, and to add several new species. To this 

 end it is advisable to assemble the pertinent facts relative to the 

 known genera and species, in the order of their geological succession, 

 beginning with the Devonian : 



