AND ITS RELATIONS TO RECENT COMATUL^. 209 



the radials of Quenstedt's specimen, as he himself admits, are very 

 similar to those of Ant. costata. The articular faces are very low 

 (PI. X. fig. 22 a) with small muscle-plates, while the outer dorsal 

 surface is smaller than in S. Jaegeri ; its lower margin is not an- 

 gular but only slightly curved, and it is interrupted at the inter- 

 radial angles by the small points that Quenstedt regards as 

 basals. The radials of Quenstedt's specimen rest upon what he 

 rightly interpreted as a "large smooth stem-joint ;" and he sup- 

 poses Goldfuss to have takeu this for the anchylosed basals. 

 This is certainly rather hard on Groldfuss, considering that he 

 never saw Quenstedt's specimen at all, his own type differing 

 considerably from that figured by Quenstedt *. 



It appears to me that while Quenstedt was undoubtedly 

 right in supposing his specimen to have been detached from 

 a stem, Schliiter's suggestion as to its beiug an immature form 

 like Ant. siyillata is scarcely a satisfactory one. In the first 

 place, as expressly remarked by Quenstedt, there are no certain 

 traces of its having borne cirrhi, as would assuredly be the case 

 were it a young and immature Comatula. On the other hand, if we 

 suppose that cirrhi were once present, but that the centrodorsal 

 has lost all traces of their sockets by the progressive deposit of 

 new material upon its external surface, we are met by another 

 difficulty. If this deposit has taken place it lias been limited to 

 the sides of the centrodorsal, which are usually the last parts to 

 be affected by it, and it has not even closed up the central per- 

 foration, which in recent Comatulce is obliterated very soon after 

 the loss of the larval stem, the superficial deposit commencing 

 here and gradually extending outwards. 



The absence of cirrhi, together with the presence of a perfo- 

 rated articular facet on the under surface of Quenstedt's specimen 

 (PL XI. fig. 22, a, b), seem to me to indicate clearly that it is the 

 head and top stem-joint of a stalked Crinoid. There are some 

 closely similar specimens in the British Museum, in which the 

 presence of basals externally is very doubtful, as it is in the one 

 figured by Quenstedt. I am inclined to think that these, as well 

 as Quenstedt's specimen, should be referred to Etallon's genus 

 Thiolliericrinus, good figures of which are given by de Loriolf . 

 At any rate, they are not Comatulce. 



* Since the above lines were written, I have seen Goldfuss's original specimen 

 of S. Jaegeri in the magnificent palceontological collection at Munich, and have 

 satisfied myself as to the accuracy of his figures and description of it. 



t Swiss Fossil Orinoids, pi. xviii. figs. 8, 9. 



