432 
PENTACRINITES. 
Pentacrinus Caput Medusae from the Caribbean 
Sea, PI. 52, Fig. 1, shews in the organization of 
this very ancient species an equal degree of per- 
fection, and a more elaborate combination of 
analogous organs, than occurs in any other fossil 
species of more recent date, or in its living re- 
presentative. 
Pentacrinite. 
The history of these fossil bodies, that abound 
in the lower strata of the Oolite formation, and 
especially in the Lias, has been much illustrated 
by the discovery of two living forms of the 
same Genus, viz. the Pentacrinus Caput Me- 
dusae,* (PI. 52, Fig.l,) and Pentacrinus EuropaeuS, 
PI. 52, Figs. 2. 2'. Of the first of these a feW 
specimens only have been brought up from the 
bottom of deep seas in the West Indies ; having 
their lower extremities broken, as if torn from n 
firm attachment to the bottom. The Pentacrinus 
Europaeust (see PI. 52, Figs. 2. 2',) is found at- 
tached to various kinds of Sertularia and Flus- 
tracea in the Cove of Cork, and other parts of 
the coast of Ireland. 
It appears that Pentacrinites are allied to 
* See Miller’s Crinoidea, p. 45. 
t See Memoir on Pentacrinus Europmus by T. V. Thompson i 
Esq. Cork, 1827. He has subsequently ascertained that this 
animal is the young of the Comatula. 
