MELOCRINIDAE 
27 
Horizon and locality. Beech River formation, Niagaran ; Decatur County, Tennessee. 
Of other species there is M. stria.tiis Hall from the Waldron, three from the Racine 
dolomite, one from the Rochester shale (see Bassler’s Index, p. 782) ; and a thoroughly repre- 
sentative species from England, M. anglictis, by Jaekel. M. indiancnsis Miller and Gurley, 
from St. Paul, does not belong to the genus, and may be a Patelliocrinns. 1 am figuring (pi. 4, 
fig. 24) a complete specimen of the type species, M. ornatus, from Lockport. New York. 
MELOCRINUS Goldfitss 
Plate 5 
Melocrinites Goldfuss, Petref, Germ., 1826, p. 197. 
Melocrinus, Agassiz, Ann. Nat. Hist., 1838, p. 447. — Wachsmuth and Springer, Rev. Pal., 2, 1881, p. 118; 
N. A. Grin. Cam., 1897, p. 292. — Bather, Treatise on Zool, 3, 1900, p. 161. — Zittel-Eastman, Textb. 
Pal., 2d ed., 1913, p. 190. — Jaekel, Phylogenie und System, 1918, p. 32. — Goldring, Devon. Grin. New 
York, 1923. — For complete list of references and table of synonyms, Bassler, Bibliogr. Index, Bull. 92, 
U. S. Nat. Mus., 1915, p. 794. 
BB 4, unequal; iBr numerous, anal interradius but slightly distinct; rays 
produced into two main rami, giving off unilateral, pinnulate arms, uniserial 
or biserial, to the outside of the dichotom ; the rami may be separate (Silurian 
species), or more or less fused by their inner margins (Devonian species) ; 
column round. 
Genotype. Melocrinus hieroglyphic us Goldfuss. 
Distribution. Devonian and Silurian ; Germany, Gotland, England, America. 
Few genera have had so much written about them as this, or have been treated under so 
many different names, as will be seen by tbe list of references in the Bibliographic Index. 
The most recent discussion is that by Miss Goldring in the monograph of the Devonian Cri- 
noids of New York, of which this genus and its allies form a most important part of the 
fauna. Hitherto it has been almost negligible among American Silurian fossils, the few species 
described being neither characteristic nor well represented. That which gives a renewed 
interest for this work is the discovery of a single specimen in the Beech River formation 
showing a wide distribution of the typical form, and the parallelism of its occurrence in this 
country and the north European Silurian. Very conspicuous species of what I regard as the 
Silurian type of the genus have been found in England and Gotland, some of them described 
by Angelin. Now for the first time we have a parallel to them from the American Silurian. 
Melocrinus tennesseensis new species 
Plate 5, fig. i 
Although the calyx plates of this unicjue specimen are somewhat disturbed, 
the decisive features of the rays are well preserved, and the general aspect of 
the fossil points unmistakably to a close relationship with the typical forms 
of England and Gotland. For comparison I am figuring two specimens of an 
abundant species from Dudley, England, which if not elsewhere described may 
be taken as M. spectabilis of Angelin (pi. 5, figs. 2, 3). The remarkahle simi- 
larity of type in the two forms is apparent at a glance, — even the stem of one 
being almost a duplicate of the other. Evidently the calyx of the American 
species is much the shorter, the base of the cup less turbinate than in the English 
form, and the iBr in the latter more numerously developed. 
Horizon and locality. Beech River formation, Niagaran : Decatur County, Tennessee. 
