Bull. nat. Hist. Mus. Lond. (Zool.) 65(1): 23-29 



Issued 24 June 1999 



Indian Ocean echinoderms collected during 

 the Sindbad Voyage (1980-81): 4. Crinoidea 



JANET I. MARSHALL CROSSLAND X>C (S\ ?*Dk(o \) 



Museum of Tropical Queensland, 70-84 Flinders St, Townsville, Queensland 4810 Australia 



ANDREW R.G. PRICE 



Ecology and Epidemiology Group, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 

 7AL, UK 



CONTENTS 



Introduction 23 



Materials and Methods 23 



Results 23 



Discussion 29 



Acknowledgements 29 



References 29 



Synopsis. Thirty species of shallow-water Crinoidea, representing eighteen genera in six families, are recorded from 

 collections made during the Sindbad Voyage (Oman to China) from the Lakshadweep (Laccadive) Islands, Sri Lanka and Pula 

 We Sumatra). Following the zoogeographic subdivisions of Clark and Rowe (1971 ), extensions of range are recorded for at 

 least six of the species: Clarkcomanthus albinotus (Indonesia/East Indies); Comanthus briareus (Sri Lanka area); Comanthus 

 gisleni (Sri Lanka area & Indonesia/East Indies); Comanthus suavia (Sri Lanka area & Indonesia/East Indies); Comanthus 

 wahlbergii (Maldive area, Sri Lanka area & Indonesia/East Indies), and Oxycomanthus bennetti (Indonesia/East Indies); and 

 possibly also Comaster pan'icirrus (Sri Lanka area - doubt about earlier record) and Comaster multifidus (Maldive area - 

 specimens poorly preserved). In addition to the taxonomic treatment, ecological information for each crinoid species (habitat 

 types, depth range) is provided and broadly analysed. 



INTRODUCTION 



Systematically, crinoid taxonomy has undergone relatively few 

 changes since the monumental works of A.H. Clark (1915-1967), 

 the major exception to this being the recent revisions to the family 

 Comasteridae by Hoggett and Rowe (1986) and Rowe, Hoggett, 

 Birtles and Vail (1986). 



This paper is the fourth in a series reporting the collection of 

 echinoderms made during a cruise by one of us (ARGP) across the 

 Indian Ocean from Oman to China.The expedition was undertaken in 

 a replica of an ancient Arab sailing vessel, 'Sohar'. Systematic 

 accounts of the other echinoderm classes have already been published 

 (Price & Reid, 1985; Marsh & Price, 1991; Price & Rowe, 1996). 



Thirty species of shallow-water crinoids from six families are 

 listed, including nine new distribution records. Generally, comments 

 are made where the record extends or modifies a range of distribu- 

 tion, or to clarify the identification. Where no comment is offered, 

 the species was already known from the region and is widespread in 

 the Indo-West Pacific. 



on coral reefs using scuba. At each locality, details of habitat type and 

 depth range were recorded, along with the number of individuals of 

 each species. The number of specimens collected is placed in 

 parenthesis after each sample number in the Material lists for each 

 species. Material was fixed and preserved using standard methods 

 (Lincoln & Sheals, 1979). Conditions on board and for specimen 

 storage on 'Sohar' were not as sophisticated as on modern research 

 vessels. Hence not all specimens returned were in good condition. 



Specimens were identified by JIMC. Where the identification was 

 uncertain, due to the changes to crinoid taxonomy by Rowe, Hoggett, 

 Birtles and Vail (1986) and Hoggett and Rowe (1986), confirmation 

 was sought from one of the authors of those papers. In some cases, 

 subsequent re-examination of specimens has engendered doubt, and 

 this doubt is expressed in the text of this paper. 

 • Where three or more specimens of a species were collected, 

 representative specimens of that species were sent to the Singapore 

 Museum (SM), as the regional museum; otherwise material was 

 divided between the Natural History Museum (NHM), London, and 

 the Western Australian Museum (WAM), Perth. 



Species are listed in families, and within each family, alphabeti- 

 cally by genus and species. 



MATERIALS AND METHODS 



Specimens were collected by one of us (ARGP) and other expedition 

 members at localities from Chetlat Island, Lakshadweep (Laccadives), 

 Sri Lanka and Pula We, Sumatra (Indonesia). Details of sampling 

 localities are shown in Figure 1 . Sampling was undertaken principally 



RESULTS 



Throughout this account synonymy has been confined, where possi- 

 ble, to a single reference from which the original reference can be 

 traced. 



> The Natural History Museum, 1999 



