Bulletin of the Mizunami Fossil Museum

Bulletin of the Mizunami Fossil Museum No. 49

The Palaeozoic palaeontological diversity of glacio-fluvial erratics in the Lower Rhine (Niederrhein) district of the federal state of Nordrhein-Westfalen (Germany), close to the Dutch/German border, may be locally varied, but can be limited. Nominal crinoids are almost unknown. Most sea lily ma- terial is in the form of generally indeterminate external moulds of pluricolumnals and rare thecal remains in various Lower and Middle Devonian sandstone facies types that are often lumped as ‘Spiriferen-Sandstein’. An incomplete theca from the Siemes Sand- and Kiesbaggerei at Wemb, close to Weeze and Kevelaer, is here tentatively assigned to the monobathrid camerate genus Euca- lyptocrinites. The vase-shaped theca has crystal apple-type preservation; some brachial series and large interbrachial plates are apparent; and a central broad canal is rounded in outline. This specimen was probably derived by glacial and/or fluvial action from the east or, more likely, north. Although left in open nomenclature, the specimen is close to Eucalyptocrinites granulatus (Lewis) from the Silurian (Wenlock) of Gotland.