62 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol. 41. 



roots they could not have been freed without at least destro3^ing the 

 comparatively delicate cirri. An examination of the crinoids com- 

 posing a colony where the animals are almost perfectly preserved 

 furnishes no indication of any considerable disturbance. The bottom 

 upon which they lived is in apparently the same condition as it was 

 in Paleozoic times. Notwithstanding this fact a very large number 

 of crinoids which retain their columns have the radicular cirri pre- 

 served most perfectly, and the distal portions of the stems are essen- 

 tially complete. Such conditions apparently indicate that those 

 particular crinoids were never firmly rooted. 



In the case of the Waldron bed, containing large numbers of roots 

 probably pertaining to Eucahjptocrinus, it would seem that the oppo- 

 site condition of affairs obtains, and that here the roots were buried 

 in the sediment. As found to-day, such a root is practically as per- 

 fect as during the life of the animal, but, unlike the free type of radicular 

 cirri, it is not found attached to complete columns. It is evident that 

 such roots as those of Eucalyptocrinus were buried in life, and upon 

 the disruption of the column remained behind. One complete speci- 

 men of Eucalyptocrinus has been found, but this is a young individual 

 with a comparatively small root. A notable difference is to be 

 observed in the structure of such roots as have just been mentioned 

 and those which are found free. In the former case the roots are 

 confined to a comparatively small portion of the distal part of the 

 column. They are numerous and branch frequently, having much 

 the appearance of the roots of a tree. In the latter cases the cirri are 

 comparatively delicate, irregularly placed along the column, and few 

 in number. It seems possible, then, when we observe columns of the 

 latter type to predicate a semifree existence for the crinoids. The 

 number of such forms is very considerable, and in most cases such 

 evidence of an eleutherozoic habit is supplemented by a coiling or 

 looping of the distal portion of the column. 



Were the majority of crinoids firmly affixed in their adult stages, as 

 has been commonly assumed, we should find a far greater number of 

 roots obviously pertaining to mature animals. It is a fact that will 

 at once strike anyone having to do with the Paleozoic rocks, and par- 

 ticularly those beds in which the Crinoidea are comparatively abun- 

 dant, that large roots are of great rarity. This is the more remarkable 

 when one considers the nature of these organs. Either as basal disks 

 or radicular cirri they are, as a rule, stout and reenforced with a sec- 

 ondary deposition of stereom. Those roots composed of radicular 

 cirri clearly indicate in the majority of instances inclusion in the sub- 

 stance of the sea bottom. Under these conditions, with deposition 

 in quiet waters, there is no reason why practically all of the roots 

 should not be preserved to us to-day. The preservation of the roots 

 at Wajdron, Ind., above described, should be the rule and not the 



