62 GUIDE TO THE FOSSIL INVEETEBEATE ANIMALS. 



Wall-ease 



Gallery with its net-like arms. Then come crinoids in which the 

 Table^'case ^^'^^^'S^o^'^^s were covered over and sunk beneath the 

 32. covering of the cup ; these are called Camerata or vaulted 

 crinoids. Among them Periecliocrimts, with its large cup 

 and bead-like stem, is the commonest. In Eiiccdyptomnnits 

 wing-like processes grew up from the lid of the cup and 

 formed recesses into which the arms were received when 

 Wall-case folded. Slabs containing many of these crinoids are on the 

 lowest slope of Wall-case 18, and show how in those days 

 many forms belonging to different genera and species lived 

 close together. Here are also several specimens from 

 N. America and Bohemia. The most remarkable is Scypho- 

 crinus, which had an enormous and apparently top-heavy 

 crown ; its stem, however, was attached to a large hollow 

 ball (the Lobolith of Barrande) which probably served as a 

 float, so that the crinoid liung crown downwards. 

 Table-case The British Devonian Crinoids are not well preserved. 



Hexacrimcs is the most conspicuous. Some foreign ones 

 T?!''^'''' are in the Wall-case, but the most remarkable are those 

 from the Lower Devonian slates of the Ehine district ; 

 these are preserved in pyrites, nnd are generally slender 

 forms. 



Table-ease The British Carboniferous Crinoids come mostly from 

 the neighbourhood of Bristol, from Derbyshire, Yorkshire, 

 and Lancashire. Most of these are Camerata, among which 

 Actinocrimis and Amphoracrimts are well-known types. 

 The type-specimen of Actinocrinus loricatiis, Schlotheim, is of 

 interest as the first British crinoid calyx ever figured, and as 

 having a longer history than almost any other specimen in 

 this Museum. Described by J. Beaumont in 1676 as a root, 

 it was called the Nave Encrinite by J. Parkinson (1808) and 

 wrongly referred to Actinocrimis triacontadctctylus by J. S. 

 Miller. Another common genus is Flatycrinus. The crinoids 

 of this epoch are even more abundant in North America, 



Wall-eases and some exceptionally fine specimens are shown. One 

 17 & 18. YWdiij note Gilhcrtsocrinus with its strange drooping appen- 

 dages, the spiny Dorycrimos, and Euclctdocrinus with a 

 twisted stem like that of Flatycrinus, 



Wall-case Triassic Crinoids are not found in Britain, but are 

 fairly abundant in the Tyrol and in Bakony, from both 

 which places the Museum possesses excellent series. Tiie 

 best known form, however, is the Lily Encrinite, Encrinus 

 liliiformis, from the Muschelkalk of Germany. 



Conspicuous among Jurassic Crinoids is Pentctcrinus, of 



