A guide to the fossil invertebrate animals in the Department of geology and palaeontology in the British museum (Natural history) . r Ordovician age. From theWenlock beds comes the heavily plated and many-armedLepidastcr. The Lower Ludlow shales of Leintwardine, ECHINODEEMA—STAE-FISHES. 69 GalleryVIII. Uprightcases A2,A3. Herefordshire, have furnished a large number of starfishes belonging to the genera Palasterina (Fig. 32 h), Sturtzastcr, Rhopalocoma, and Bdellacoma. Some obscure starfishes have been found, in the Lower Devonian slates of Cornwall, but the fossils of this age are better stud
A guide to the fossil invertebrate animals in the Department of geology and palaeontology in the British museum (Natural history) . r Ordovician age. From theWenlock beds comes the heavily plated and many-armedLepidastcr. The Lower Ludlow shales of Leintwardine, ECHINODEEMA—STAE-FISHES. 69 GalleryVIII. Uprightcases A2,A3. Herefordshire, have furnished a large number of starfishes belonging to the genera Palasterina (Fig. 32 h), Sturtzastcr, Rhopalocoma, and Bdellacoma. Some obscure starfishes have been found, in the Lower Devonian slates of Cornwall, but the fossils of this age are better studied in the beautiful series from Bundenbach in Prussia. In these the skeletons are altered into iron pyrites and imbedded in black slate, which has been cleaned away from them with most delicate care by Mr. B. Stiirtz, the original describer of many of these specimens (see Pal aeon tographica 1886, 1890, and other papers mentioned on the labels). Palacasterisms, Cheiropteraster, and Hclianthaster may be mentioned, but all are beautiful and interesting. Eeturning to the British series, we find some good speci- Table-case Fig. 32.—Palseozoic Starfishes, a, Schiicheitia stellata, from the Ordo-vician of Ottawa; under surface with grooves and mouth, b, Palas-terina 2^rimseva, Upper Silurian of Kendal; upper surface. mens of Jurassic star-fish, notably Tropidaster from theMiddle Lias, a massive Pentagonaster SJiarjn from the J^ortli-ampton Ironstone, a beautifully preserved Asterias Gavcyi andSolaster Moretonis from the Great Oolite. Astropectcn is repre-sented by species of various ages from Bajocian to Corallian,and some larger specimens of it are in Wall-case 17. Cretaceous Asteroidea are best shown in the excellent Table-casesseries from the English Chalk, which have been described ^by W. P. Sladen and W. K. Spencer in a monograph of thePalaeontographical Society. Here the tesselated CallidcrmaSmithi and the fine group of Pentaceros hulbifcrus arespecially worth notice.
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