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TERTIARY ECHINOIDS FROM THE 



CALOOSAHATCHEE AND TAMIAMI 



FORMATIONS OF FLORIDA 



BY PORTER M. KIER 



Associate Curator, Division of Invertebrate Paleontology 



and Paleobotany, United States National Museum 



Smithsonian Institution 



(With 18 Plates) 



Echinoids in the Caloosahatchee and Tamiami formations are 

 abundant and well preserved. There are seven species in the Caloosa- 

 hatchee and nine in the Tamiami, with two of the subspecies occur- 

 ring in both formations. Five species and two subspecies are new. 

 These echinoids are of particular interest because many of the species 

 are very similar to species now living in the Caribbean. This similarity 

 makes it possible to suggest several phylogenetic lineages. Further- 

 more, most of the species are represented by many specimens, thus 

 permitting a biometric study of their variation and ontogeny. 



The living Clypeaster prostratus (Ravenel) is redescribed to 

 facilitate easy comparison with its fossil relative Clypeaster crassus 

 Kier, new species, in the Tamiami formation. An extraordinary 

 hexamerous variant of this species is figured and described. 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 



I thank Druid Wilson, of the U.S. Geological Survey, who not 

 only collected many of the specimens described herein but also took 

 me to the localities where most of them were collected. His knowl- 

 edge of the stratigraphy and molluscan faunas of the Caloosahatchee 

 and Tamiami formations made it possible to determine the relation- 

 ships of the echinoid faunas. John Ayres presented me with many 

 specimens and guided Mr. Wilson and me to a Caloosahatchee locality 

 near Denaud where we collected many well preserved echinoids. 

 Thomas Phelan, John Reynolds, and Wesley Stark kindly sent me 



SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS, VOL. 145, NO. 5 



