PALEONTOLOGIC CONTRIBUTIONS 



37 



Promopalaeaster ( ?) sp. 



The State Museum contains a slab of Clinton sandstone from 

 Clinton, N. Y., once taken by Doctor Clarke from a culvert near 

 Utica, that bears the impressions of two starfishes. Although the 

 specimens are not sufficiently well preserved for description or even 

 generic determination, they are so peculiar in their characters that 

 it seems appropriate to record the occurrence of such an interesting 

 form in the Clinton beds. 



12 13 



Fig. 12, 13 Promopalaeaster (?) sp. Two specimens, 

 natural size. 



The slab is obviously the cast of a bottom surface with many 

 trails such as are extremely common in the Clinton sandstone. Also 

 the larger starfish shows distinctly the trail of two of its arms 

 and the impressions of the spines of one of them. The larger 

 specimen is of plump form wfith short, broad rays and large disk, 

 formed by the bases of the rays. The entire surface is covered 

 with a dense mass of spines, so that no structure can be discerned 

 save a median furrow in one of the rays, corresponding to the 

 position of an ambulacrum. 



The smaller specimen has a similar outline, but more slender 

 rays and apparently less-developed spines. 



The larger specimen is, in outline and the covering by spines, 

 comparable to certain species of Promopalaeaster, p. e. P . d y e r i 



