I. -INTRODUCTION. 
The distribution of the Permo-Carboniferous Ecliinodermata is equally fitful 
with that of the Actinozoa, and the life history of this Class would seem to 
have been governed by the same causes as those which yielded so powerful an 
influence on the latter. Prom a sjiecific point of view the occurrence of 
Echinoderms in the rocks in question is rare ; at any rate this would appear to 
be the case from the geological researches that have so far progressed. In 
two out of the three groups represented this would also aj^pear to be the case 
numerically, for the Crinoidea is the only Class in which anything like a 
redundance of individuals predominated. This fact is only arrived at from the 
abundance of skeletal fragments in some deposits, chiefly stem joints, any- 
thing like perfect calices, not to speak of the entire organism being rare. In 
the Carboniferous rocks, or those beds below the Lower Marine Series, several 
horizons have been discovered at which extensive traces of Crinoid life have 
been found, chiefly consisting of stem fragments entering into the composi- 
tion of limestones. 
We are now, for the first time, made aware of the existence in our 
rocks of the Palaeozoic section of the Echinoidea, whilst the Asteroidea, 
formerly known from the presence of one species, is noAv represented by three, 
and these of large size. 
So far the Crinoidea are known to occur in the Carboniferous and the 
Upper Marine Series of the Pernio- Carhoniferous ; the Asteroidea, in both 
the Lower and Upper Marine Series, but the Echinoidea only from the Upper 
Marine Series. The Cystoidea and Blastoidea are not represented at all in 
our New South Wales Carboniferous or Permo-Carboniferous rocks, although 
the latter class is known to occur in beds of the last-named age in Queensland. 
I am not aware that the remains of Annelids have been before noted ; 
and although the evidence is but meagre, sufficient is before us to raise a hope 
of future additions. 
With regard to the Crustacea, two Orders are knoivn to exist — the 
Ostracoda and Trilobita. The first occurs both in the Carboniferous and 
Permo-Carboniferous, the second only, so far as I have been able to ascertain, 
in the second division of this series of our rocks. 
