Bulletin of the Mizunami Fossil Museum

Bulletin of the Mizunami Fossil Museum Vol. 51, No. 1

Identifiable crinoids are rare in the Devonian of the South Devon Basin, south-west England (UK). Hitherto, only two taxa have been described, both in open nomenclature, namely Ctenocrinus? spp.(Lower Devonian) and a twenty-armed camerate sp. indet. (Upper Devonian). A new collection, labelled ‘Lower Devonian’ and ‘unidentified crinoid stems’, is described here in slates from Trevone, near Padstow, north Cornwall. Three out of seven specimens are orthoconic nautiloids, not echinoderms. The crinoid gen. et sp. indet. is represented by pluricolumnals; there are no disarticulated ossicles, suggesting that burial was rapid. Some specimens on the largest slab are parallel, likely due to current-induced orientation. Autotomy may have released the crowns due to an environmental disturbance, leaving the columns to be buried locally.