62 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



between Seneca and Cayuga lakes. The discovery was an inter- 

 esting one as the genus had not before been known in the American 

 Paleozoic rocks, but no attempt was then made to analyze the struc- 

 ture of the specimens. A halftone plate of the better of the two 

 individuals found was given and the intimation made that the species 

 was not identical with the German H. r hen an us F. Roemer, 

 the only form hitherto referred to the genus. The publication of 

 this figure induced Prof. H. P. Gushing of Adelbert Gollege, to call 

 my attention to a slab of similar fossils in his possession which had 

 years ago been acquired by the late Samuel G. Williams while pro- 

 fessor of geology at Cornell University. This specimen has been 

 placed in my hands; it is from the Portage beds at Earl's quarry, 

 Ithaca. 



We have now five individuals of this species of Helianthaster, the 

 two from Interlaken of which one displays the ventral aspect of the 

 arms and the other appears to be an external cast of the same side 

 of. another individual ; both of these are damaged about the oral 

 region. The Earl's quarry slab carries three individuals all in ven- 

 tral aspect, and all casts. Of one of these the mouth parts are 

 missing but in the other two they are retained, in one particularly 

 well. Not long ago I was successful in obtaining, a magnificent 

 specimen of Helianthaster from Bundenbach which has admirably 

 lent itself to preparation and which elucidates some points of struc- 

 ture not recited by Stiirtz in his admirable account of the structure 

 of H. r h e n a n u s and is indeed of much more commanding 

 proportions than the material illustrated by that author. 



As this genus is a novelty in New York paleontology it is of 

 interest to call attention to these recent discoveries with such detail 

 as the preservation of the specimens permits. Helianthaster, from 

 its original description by F. Roemer^ was -a hardly recognizable 

 genus. It was only after Stiirtz rediscovered and analyzed the 

 species from the Bundenbach shales that an approximate conception 

 of this very commanding ophiuran was attained^ and it is in the 

 light of these determinations alone that the specimens here con- 

 sidered can be intelligently interpreted. 



In regard to Helianthaster r h e n a n u s the description 

 given by Roemer in founding the genus [op. cit. p. 147] was I ised 

 on specimens pyritized but involved in the shale in the usual mode 

 of preservation of the Bundendach starfish and no attempt was 



* Paleontographica. 1862. v. 9. 



= Paleontographica. 1885. 32 81, pi. 8, fig. 3, 3a; 1880, 36.: 218, pi. 26. fig. 

 M, 15, 15a; pi. 27, fig. 14. 



