Article: An unusual crinoid columnal morphospecies from the Llandovery of Scotland and Wales
Publication: Palaeontology
Volume:
35
Part:
1
Publication Date:
January
1992
Page(s):
27
–
35
Author(s):
Stephen K. Donovan and Neil D. L. Clark
Abstract
Distinctive crinoid columns with pentastellate to serrate circular nodal epifacets are probably derived from rhodocrinitid diplobathrid camerates and are placed in the morphogenus Floricolumnus (col.) gen. nov., which is only known from the Lower Llandovery of the British Isles, The type species, F. (col.) girvanensis sp. nov., is known only from the Newlands Formation of the Girvan district (late A4 to early B1). Nodals of this species are inflated; epifacet ' rays' are simple, bifid or multilobate; the column is strongly heteromorphic. F (col.) sp. cf. F. (col.) girvanensis is from the Gasworks Mudstone of Dyfed (A3 to early A4). The presence of this genus in both the North American and South European faunal provinces is compatible with the cosmopolitan distribution of Late Ordovician and Silurian crinoids previously recognized on the basis of complete specimens.