Article: Kirklandia texana Caster—Cretaceous hydrozoan medusoid or trace fossil chimaera?

A re-examination of Kirklandia texana Caster, 1945 described originally as a medusoid hydrozoan, revealed stratinomic, preservational, and morphological features incompatible with interpretations as a body fossil. An alternative interpretation, with the 'bell' of Kirklandia as a feeding trace of Gyrophyllites type and the 'arms' as fecal-pellet-lined burrows comparable with Gramilaria, satisfactorily explains these anomalous features. The genus Kirklandia and the family Kirklandidae should be removed from the Coelenterata and the medusoid hydrozoans (order Trachylinida) thus have no unequivocal fossil representatives.