LECANOCRINIDAE I2Q 



Lecanocrinus macropetalus Hall 

 Plate III, figs. 1-18 



Cyathocrinus ? Hall, Geol. Fourth District New York, 1843, Tables Organic Remains, No. 21, figs. 5, 

 5", 56. 



Lecanocrinus macropetalus Hall, Nat. Hist. New York Pal. II, 1852, p. 199, pi. 45, figs. la-h. — Bronn, 

 Klassen Ord. Thier-Reichs, pi. 27, figs. 6a-d. — Beyrich, Monatsber. Acad. Wiss. Berlin, Feb., 1871, 

 p. 46 (Transl. in Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. (4) VII, p. 404) .— Quenstedt, Petref. Deutschlands, 

 IV, 1876, p. 516, pi. 108, fig. 26. — Wachsmuth and Springer, Revision Palaeocrinoidea, pt. 1, 1879, 

 p. 40; Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Philadelphia, 1888, p. 357. — Miller, N. A. Geology and Palaeontology, 

 1889, p. 257, fig. 348.— Grabau, Bull. 45, N. Y. State Mus., IX, igoi, p. 160, fig. 55.— Springer, 

 Jour. Geology, XIV, 1906, pi. 6, figs. 13, 14. 



Lecanocrinus putcolus Ringueberg, Bull. Buffalo Soc. Nat. Sci., V, 1886, p. ri, pi. 1, fig. 8. 



Not Lecanocrinus macropetalus, Angelin, Icon. Crin. Sueciae, 1878, p. 12, pi. 19, figs. 3, 4; pi. 22, 

 fig. 24 = Anisocrinus angelini W. and Sp. 



Type of the genus. 



A large species, variable in size. Crown elongate ovoid, evenly curved and 

 without angularity; base rounded, sometimes protuberant; average height to 

 width at I Ax, about i to i.i ; at IIBn, i.i to i ; at distal face of RR, i to 1.6. 

 Surface smooth ; calyx plates thin. Maximum crown, 30 mm. high by 20 mm. 

 wide at IIBn; column facet, 5 mm. 



IBB large, protuberant. BB large. Anal x very large, often reaching to 

 IIBr, projecting at least half its height above level of radials. RR large, three 

 times the height of IBr. Relative height in millimeters of B to R to IBr, 8:6:1.5. 

 IBr 2 ; IIBr 3 or 4; either in all the rays, or varying in different rays of the same 

 specimen; IIIBr 6 to 10 or more, the greater number in the outer ramus. Rays 

 interlocking to IIBr, closely abutting and infolding above; not increasing in 

 width upward. Arms flush with the general curvature, without angularity or 

 marked convexity; diminishing rapidly in width from IIBr up. Column facet 

 concave, shallow, not indented. Column with decided alternation of long and 

 short columnals next to the calyx, the longer ones rounded, gradually becoming" 

 uniform; the contrast between long and short ossicles is greater in young- 

 specimens. 



I usually omit from the diagnosis of this and following species characters which are 

 merely generic, common to all the species of the genus ; or which necessarily result from its 

 essential structure-, such as the presence, absence, or position of radianal plates, or the number 

 of primibrachs, except when the character is subject to variation within the genus ; also 

 characters which are fundamental, for the entire group, such as the number of infrabasals, 

 basals, and radials. Such repetition not only serves no good purpose toward specific defini- 

 tion, but is pedantic and wearisome, too often put into specific descriptions for the purpose of 

 " padding," to conceal the insufficiency of real specific characters, or the indisposition of the 

 author to take the trouble of ascertaining or clearly stating what they are. 



It is fortunate that this, the typical species of the genus, is fairly abundant at the original 

 locality, Lockport, New York and in the same shales at Grimsby, Canada. The word 

 " abundant " is used in a relative sense, for the sum total of I>r. Ringueberg's ■collecting for 

 over 20 years and of my own subsequently is about 20 specimens, and Sir Edmund Walker's 



