ORGANIC REMAINS 
OF A 
FORMER WORLD , $<?. 
LETTER I. 
STAR-FISH. ..RARELY MINERALISED. ..FOSSIL SPECIES PARTICULARISED. 
As we proceed upwards on the scale of creation, the star-fish, or 
sea-star, Stella marina , Linckii, et Asteria, Linncei *, is the next 
animal which demands our attention, as a subject of the mineral 
kingdom. The fossil remains of these animals are by no means so 
frequent as are those of many others ; a circumstance which is 
perhaps not to be satisfactorily accounted for. The numerous species 
of these animals which do now exist, and the comparatively few 
which are found in a mineralised state, lead to the supposition, that 
* The name, Stella marina, employed by Linck, on the authority of Pliny, is adopted, 
in these pages, in preference to Asteria, which Linnaeus has used, after Hippocrates and 
Aristotle. The only reason for this adoption is, that the confusion will thereby be prevented, 
which would necessarily arise from the employment, in this place, of the word asteria which 
oryctologists, and indeed natural historians, have generally applied to the vertebrae of the 
pentacrinites, as may be seen in the preceding volume. 
VOL. III. u 
