104 



FOSSIL OOLITIC ASTERIAD.E. 



Genus— SOLASTY.R, Forbes. 



Ckossaster, MilUer aud I'roschel. 



Body stellate ; disc large, rays short and numerous ; upper surface of the disc and 



rays covered with fasiculated spines ; tegumentary membrane between the fasciculi naked ; 



ambulacral furrows narrow, with two rows of pores for the tubular feet ; no pedicellariae ; 



vent central. 



Fig. 33. 



Portion of a ray of Solastejr papposa, Linn. A, the under ; B, tlie upper surface. 



The genus Solaster is represented in our epoch by only six species, two of which, 

 Solaster papposa, Linn., and Solaster endecajlAxw^.iYwQ in European seas. The only fossil 

 which has hitherto been referred to this genus is the magnificent specimen figured in 

 Plate IV, which was found at Windrush Quarry, Gloucestershire, in a block of light- 

 coloured Oolitic freestone belonging to the Great Oolite ; this unique fossil was obtained 

 from the workman who discovered it by the Earl of Ducie, to whose collection it belongs. 



A. — Species from the Great Oolite. 

 Solaster Moretonis, Forbes. PI. IV, fig. \, a, b, c, d, e. 



Solaster Moretonis, Forbes. Morris's Catalogue of British Fossils, p. 89, 2d ed., 

 1854. 



— — Forbes. Memoirs of the Geological Survey, Organic Remains, 



Decade v, pi. i, 1856. 



— — Wriglit. British Association Reports, vol. for 1856, p. 402. 



Disc large ; rays numerous, thirty-three in number, narrow, linear, equal lengthened, 

 tapering to a fine point; ambulacral furrows wide and deep, the margins of the rays 

 provided with several rows of fine, acicular, close-set spines. 



Dimensions. — Diameter of the body, from ray point to ray point, five inches ; diameter 

 of the disc, one inch and four tenths of an inch ; length of the rays, one inch and nine tenths 

 of an inch ; breadth of a ray at the widest part, four twelfths of an inch ; average breadth 

 of an ambulacrum, two twelfths of an inch. 



