Lisdoonvarna springs and spa wells,County Clare,Ireland

Lisdoonvarna is a small town with a resident population of ca. 700, which is seasonally increased several-fold by tourists. It is located in the northwest of County Clare, western Ireland about 10 km from the Atlantic seaboard and adjacent to the karstic Burren plateau. Lisdoonvarna has two claims to fame: it is the only currently operative spa in Ireland, and it is the center for a long-established match-making festival held each September (postharvest) at which bachelor farmers are found partners by skilled match-makers. These two features of Lisdoonvarna are not wholly unconnected even though the September festival now attracts many young people from outside of the area who may not patronize the spa waters.     

Crinoid columns as hard substrates: Salthill Quarry (Mississippian,lower Carboniferous), Clitheroe,Lancashire, UK

Salthill Quarry, Clitheroe, Lancashire (Mississippian, Visean) is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), in part based on its diverse fauna of invertebrates, particularly echinoderms. A small collection of crinoid pluricolumnals are described herein, collected from muddy horizons in the Hodder Mudstone Formation to typify the diversity and frequency of their encrusting and boring fauna. These specimens are infested by a range of episkeletozoans, namely a single occurrence of Sutherlandia parasitica (Phillips), four occurrences of Cladochonus sp. and eight of Oichnus paraboloides Bromley. Two variants of the pit (boring or embedment or both) O. paraboloides are recognised: those in which a living crinoid showed a growth reaction to pit formation; and those that did not and which were presumably dead at the time of infestation. The epizoozoan tabulate coral Cladochonus sp. is also common, including specimens intergrown between and within the columnals. Sutherlandia parasitica is relatively uncommon; the only specimen likely infested a dead pluricolumnal on the sea floor. A comparative collection of pluricolumnals infested by Cladochonus beecheri Grabau from the Mississippian Borden Group of the Midwest, USA, showed superior preservation to the Clitheroe Cladochonus sp. Cladochonus beecheri in the Borden Group infested platycrinitid crinoid stems, an association not noted from Salthill Quarry. Similar suites of borings-episkeletozoans, from two other sites – the Visean of Feltrim, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and the Permian of Timor – suggest that these were persistent associations for much of the Late Palaeozoic.     

Llandovery Crinoidea of the British Isles,including description of a new species from the Kilbride Formation (Telychian) of western Ireland

A new species of cladid(?) crinoid, Segmentocolumnus (col.) clarksoni, based on distinctive, disarticulated stem material, is described from the Upper Llandovery Kilbride Formation. Hitherto, this unit has yielded two taxa based on single, nearly complete crinoids. In contrast, S. (col.) clarksoni is known from numerous specimens, including common long pentagonal, pentameric, heteromorphic pluricolumnals with symplectial articulations, broad pentagonal lumina and narrow claustra. A related morphospecies is known from the Ashgill (Upper Ordovician) of Ireland. The fossil echinoderms of the Llandovery (Lower Silurian) are poorly known globally. Where present in this interval, echinoderms are more commonly preserved as disarticulated ossicles and rarely as complete specimens. Complete crinoids have now been identified from nine horizons in the Llandovery of the British Isles, making this one of the better known pelmatozoan faunas from this time interval. However, only two of these occurrences have yielded as many as five or more identifiable taxa. Seven of the nine occurrences are Upper Llandovery (Telychian). Genera are typical of the Silurian or (Upper Ordovician + Silurian); the only remnant Ashgill taxon that did not survive the Llandovery was the morphogenus Segmentocolumnus (col.) Donovan, an ‘extinction’ that probably owes more to taxonomic method than any evolutionary pattern. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Primitive Ordovician (Floian) echinoderms from Sandu,Guizhou Province,South China,and their significance

Pelmatozoans diversified primarily during the Middle and Late Ordovician Period, with Early Ordovician records being much more limited, resulting in many gaps in our knowledge of the early stages of their diversification. Dissociated pelmatozoan ossicles have been found abundantly in one section in the Tonggao Formation (Tetragraptus approximatus Biozone, Floian, Early Ordovician). Most of the ossicles are thecal plates and stem ossicles from hemicosmitoid and glyptocystitoid cystoids. Thecal plates of ‘Cheirocrinus’ sp., Polycosmites sp., and other plates of uncertain affinity are described. A different ossicle type, Pentagonopentagonalis (col.), may represent crinoid remains; this would be one of the earliest occurrences of the class. The thecal ossicles and columnals are all considered, as both sets of data are desirable to determine the most complete estimate of generic diversity. The echinoderm ossicles may have been transported in from shallower water palaeoenvironments and clusters of ossicles may represent coprolites or regurgitates. Estimates of Early Ordovician palaeogeography that place this site at 30°S or near the palaeoequator are supported by the physiological requirements of the primitive echinoderms described herein. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Stone,water and ice: The Burren and Cliffs of Moher UNESCO Global Geopark,County Clare,Ireland

This is an overview of the geology and geoheritage of the Burren and Cliffs of Moher UNESCO Global Geopark. The geology is Carboniferous, dominated by fossiliferous Mississippian limestones and mostly coastal exposures of Pennsylvanian siliciclastics. Late Pleistocene ice sheets subsequently formed significant features in the landscape. The Cliffs of Moher is the most visited outdoor tourist attraction in Ireland and tourism is a significant income source in the Geopark area. Education and research form a key part of the Geopark programme. The Burren and Cliffs of Moher UNESCO Global Geopark is managed by Clare County Council with support from Geological Survey Ireland.     

The discovery of Isocrinus cf. robustus from the Lias Group (Lower Jurassic) near Dunrobin Castle, Sutherland, Scotland

A single stem section (pluricolumnal) belonging to a post-Palaeozoic crinoid (sea lily) is reported from a small outcrop of Lower Jurassic Lias Group strata exposed in low cliff near Dunrobin Castle. This is the first Jurassic crinoid recorded from Eastern Scotland and the small fragment has enough diagnostic characters to be assigned to the species Isocrinus cf. robustus; a crinoid found commonly in the Lower Jurassic of England. The Scottish form collected has unusual morphology that is atypical of the genus.     

Fossil echinoderms from the Triassic and Jurassic of Ireland

An overview is provided of fossil echinoderm taxa recovered from the Jurassic (Lias Group) and Triassic (Penarth Group) of Ireland. Despite limited outcrop and generally poor exposure, at least 12 species are recorded (6 crinoids, 2 echinoids, 3 ophiuroids and one asteroid), with significant new material recovered from an early Hettangian lagerstätte. The crinoid Isocrinus angulatus (Fraas, 1858), omitted from an earlier Palaeontographical Society Monograph on Lower Jurassic crinoids, is described based on articulated material.     

Early stages of till genesis: an example from Fanore, County Clare, Ireland

Traditional views of glacigenic processes focus on erosion of hard bedrock and deposition of unconsolidated till. In the 1960s and 1970s attention was directed towards the glacier debris cascade, which linked these two end members. A limited understanding of the relationship between bedrock character, the supposed processes of erosion, debris comminution and texture emerged. In the 1980s researchers began to appreciate the important role which glaciotectonism plays in the spectrum of glacigenic processes, although little attention has been paid to the interface between glacial erosion, glaciotectonism and the early stages of the debris cascade system. A coastal section at Fanore, County Clare, Ireland affords a unique opportunity to examine a range of glacial deposits which represent a series in the erosion, tectonism and comminution stages of till genesis. Major elements of the site are bedrock rafts, glaciotectonic breecias, immature till and mature till. In all cases > 98% of the elements comprise Carboniferous limestone. Research at Fanore has focused on textural properties. Analysis of bulk samples of the sediments demonstrates a continuum of textural development from the glaciotectonism of the bedrock (breecia production and bedrock raft comminution) to a homogenized but immature till and to a more mature matrix-dominated deposit.     

Early burial mud diapirism and its impact on stratigraphic architecture in the Carboniferous of the Shannon Basin,County Clare,Ireland

Delta fronts are often characterized by high rates of sediment supply that result in unstable slopes and a wide variety of soft‐sediment deformation, including the formation of overpressured and mobile muds that may flow plastically during early burial, potentially forming mud diapirs. The coastal cliffs of County Clare, western Ireland, expose Pennsylvanian (Namurian) delta‐front deposits of the Shannon Basin at large scale and in three dimensions. These deposits include decametre‐scale, internally chaotic mudstone masses that clearly impact the surrounding sedimentary strata. Evidence indicates that these were true mud (unlithified sediment) diapirs that pierced overlying strata. This study documents a well‐exposed ca 20 m tall mud diapir and its impact on the surrounding mouth‐bar deposits of the Tullig Cyclothem. A synsedimentary fault and associated rollover dome, evident from stratal thicknesses and the dip of the beds, define one edge of the diapir. These features are interpreted as recording the reactive rise of the mud diapir in response to extensional faulting along its margin. Above the diapir, heterolithic sandstones and siltstones contain evidence for the creation of localized accommodation, suggesting synsedimentary filling, tilting and erosion of a shallow sag basin accommodated by the progressive collapse of the diapir. Two other diapirs are investigated using three‐dimensional models built from ‘structure from motion’ drone imagery. Both diapirs are interpreted to have grown predominantly through passive rise (downbuilding). Stratal relationships for all three diapirs indicate that they were uncompacted and fluid‐rich mud beds that became mobilized through soft‐sediment deformation during early burial (i.e. <50 m, likely <10 m depth). Each diapir locally controlled the stratigraphic architecture in the shallow subsurface and potentially influenced local palaeocurrents on the delta. The mud diapirs studied herein are distinct from deeper ‘shale diapirs’ that have been inferred from seismic sections worldwide, now largely disputed.     

Palaeozoic micro-pelmatozoan thecae from the bedload of the River Maas (province of Limburg,the Netherlands)

In the Netherlands, Late Palaeozoic pelmatozoans – that is, stalked echinoderms – are known from building stones and cobbles in rivers, but there are no in-situ carbonate rocks from which they might be collected. Unsurprisingly, most recognisable specimens are columnals and pluricolumnals. Two small thecae, collected in the mid-1970s from silexite cobbles in the bedload of the River Maas in the Venlo-Tegelen area (province of Limburg, south-east Netherlands) are exceptional finds. One specimen, the diplobathrid camerate crinoid Rhodocrinites sp., has an unsculptured theca and some minor differences of form, yet otherwise satisfies the diagnosis of this genus. The other, the pentremitid blastoid Doryblastus? sp. is rather poorly preserved, yet is the first blastoid to be recorded from the Netherlands. Either or both of these specimens may be juveniles, particularly the blastoid. They are unlikely to be coeval, coming from separate cobbles and being of slightly different preservation. Their provenance from silexite cobbles suggest they originated from Lower Carboniferous (Tournaisian-Visean = Mississippian) carbonates in the southern Ardennes (south-central Belgium).     

Biostratigraphy,microfacies and depositional environments of upper Viséan limestones from the Burren region,County Clare,Ireland

The Burren region in western Ireland contains an almost continuous record of Viséan (Middle Mississippian) carbonate deposition extending from Chadian to Brigantian times, represented by three formations: the Chadian to Holkerian Tubber Formation, the Asbian Burren Formation and the Brigantian Slievenaglasha Formation. The upper Viséan (Holkerian–Brigantian) platform carbonate succession of the Burren can be subdivided into six distinct depositional units outlined below. (1) An Holkerian to lower Asbian unit of skeletal peloidal and bryozoan bedded limestone. (2) Lower Asbian unit of massive light grey Koninckopora‐rich limestone, representing a shallower marine facies. (3) Upper Asbian terraced limestone unit with minor shallowing‐upward cycles of poorly bedded Kamaenella‐rich limestone with shell bands and palaeokarst features. This unit is very similar to other cyclic sequences of late Asbian age in southern Ireland and western Europe, suggesting a glacio‐eustatic origin for this fourth‐order cyclicity. (4) Lower Brigantian unit with cyclic alternations of crinoidal/bryozoan limestone and peloidal limestone with coral thickets. These cycles lack evidence of subaerial exposure. (5) Lower Brigantian bedded cherty dark grey limestone unit, deposited during the maximum transgressive phase of the Brigantian. (6) Lower to upper Brigantian unit mostly comprising cyclic bryozoan/crinoidal cherty limestone. In most areas this youngest unit is truncated and unconformably overlain by Serpukhovian siliciclastic rocks. Deepening enhanced by platform‐wide subsidence strongly influenced later Brigantian cycle development in Ireland, but localized rapid shallowing led to emergence at the end of the Brigantian. A Cf5 Zone (Holkerian) assemblage of microfossils is recorded from the Tubber Formation at Black Head, but in the Ballard Bridge section the top of the formation has Cf6 Zone (Asbian) foraminiferans. A typical upper Asbian Rugose Coral Assemblage G near the top of the Burren Formation is replaced by a lower Brigantian Rugose Coral Assemblage H in the Slievenaglasha Formation. A similar change in the foraminiferans and calcareous algae at this Asbian–Brigantian formation boundary is recognized by the presence of upper Asbian Cf6γ Subzone taxa in the Burren Formation including Cribrostomum lecomptei, Koskinobigenerina sp., Bradyina rotula and Howchinia bradyana, and in the Slievenaglasha Formation abundant Asteroarchaediscus spp., Neoarchaediscus spp. and Fasciella crustosa of the Brigantian Cf6δ Subzone. The uppermost beds of the Slievenaglasha Formation contain a rare and unusual foraminiferal assemblage containing evolved archaediscids close to tenuis stage indicating a late Brigantian age. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Micritization of crinoids by diagenetic dissolution

Bands within the Chalk of Kansas made up of masses of Uintacrinus socialis show an unusual preservation of crinoid ossicles: in contrast to their normal preservation in full relief as single large calcite crystals the ossicles are compressed and transformed to micrite. The micrite originated by a process different from the well-known micritization by algal and fungal borings and subsequent cementation of the borings: it is the outcome of partial dissolution. Dissolution proceeded inside the sediment and preferentially attacked the echinoderms as the most soluble calcareous component of the chalk sediment. Later, the remains of the Uintacrinus crystals preferentially attracted syntaxial cement so that the layer changed to a hard band of limestone within the soft chalk. In addition to a second process of micritization the preservation of Uintacrinus demonstrates (1) that the magnesium content of magnesian calcites survives the earliest stages of diagenesis within chalk, and (2) that a diagenetic comminution of large crystals (in an optical sense) to smaller ones is possible. Provided the ossicles of echinoderms are true single crystals (the knowledge in this field is summarized), this is an example of the often discussed ‘crystal diminution’.     

Macrostylocrinus bornholmensis Laursen, 1940, a forgotten Silurian crinoid from Denmark

The monobathrid camerate crinoid Macrostylocrinus bornholmensis Laursen has an unfortunate history. It was published in a journal not commonly consulted by echinoderm workers and, worse, in time of war; written in a language not in common use for crinoid studies; and described by a stratigrapher, not an expert on pelmatozoans. These and other factors combined to ensure that M. bornholmensis has not been reassessed since it was first described almost 80?years ago, despite belonging to a genus well-known from the Lower Palaeozoic. Macrostylocrinus bornholmensis is Llandovery (Telychian) and not Wenlock as has been reported elsewhere. Diagnostic features include a column that does not bear radices close beneath the cup; a heteromorphic mesistele with five orders of regularly inserted internodals; three basal plates; smooth thecal plates with central folds following rays; and ten pinnulate free arms that are biserial distally. Macrostylocrinus bornholmensis is distinctly different in morphology from well-known, congeneric species described from the Lower Palaeozoic of northern Europe.     

Two intriguing pluricolumnals (Crinoidea) from the Lower Palaeozoic of Powys and Shropshire

Complete fossils must be preferred to fragments for most palaeontological studies, but disarticulated specimens are nonetheless potential sources of noteworthy data. Two crinoid pluricolumnals are recorded from the lower Palaeozoic; informed discussion shows each is a basis for palaeobiological interpretation. Both are gracile and are probably belong to disparids. Floricrinus (col.) sp. is from the Silurian of Wenlock Edge, Shropshire, either from the Much Wenlock Limestone Formation (Wenlock) or, more likely, the Lower Elton Formation (Ludlow). This is the first crinoid from the Silurian of the British Isles with a pentapetaloid arrangement of the areola, a geometry common in the Middle-Upper Ordovician and higher in the geologic column. Pluricolumnal gen. et sp. indet. is from the Lower Llanvirn of Powys. One end of the otherwise straight specimen is tightly coiled. This is likely the proxistele, the most flexible region of the column, and the coiling occurred after the crown was lost by autotomy in response to an environmental disturbance.     

Slump-initiated and controlled syndepositional sandstone remobilization: an example from the Namurian of County Clare, Ireland

Remobilization of sandstones can dramatically reconfigure original depositional geometries and results in very unusually shaped sandstones, which resemble little, if any, of the original geometry. A number of deformational sandstone bodies, dykes and volcanoes from the upper part of the Carboniferous Ross Formation are described, which offer the opportunity to examine a suite of field-scale reconfigured sandstones. These structures are located in close proximity to the Ross Slide, which outcrops along a 2-km section on the northern coast of the Loop Head Peninsula, County Clare, Ireland. Dome- and ridge-shaped deformational sandstone bodies, dykes and volcanoes are interpreted to be the product of remobilization of a turbiditic sandstone. Liquification and remobilization were triggered by translation, cessation and loading of the underlying turbiditic sandstone by the Ross Slide. Deformational sand body, dyke and volcano development occurred in an asynchronous fashion with deformational sand bodies formed during slump translation. Sand dykes and volcanoes developed after the cessation of slump movement. During slump translation, the minimum principal stress (σ₃) was orientated vertically and the slump behaved in a `ductile' manner. After slump arrest, the minimum principal stress was oriented horizontally, and the unit regained shear strength to behave in a `brittle' manner. The relative change in rheological states with changing applied shear stress is indicative of thixotropic-like behaviour within the slump mass. Ridge-shaped deformational sand bodies are aligned parallel to slump folds, and their morphology is inferred to be controlled by compressional slump deformation associated with heterogeneous cessation of slump movement that was initiated by frontal arrest of the translating mass.     

Bathonian (Middle Jurassic) crinoids of the Hidas Valley (Mecsek Mountains, S Hungary) and their biogeographic significance

The Bathonian crinoid fauna that occurs in red nodular limestone and argillaceous limestones from the Hidas Valley, Mecsek Mts (southern Hungary) consists of three isocrinid and six cyrtocrinid species. Isocrinids are represented by Balanocrinus inornatus (d’Orbigny), B. berchteni Hess and Pugin and Balanocrinus sp. Cyrtocrinids are represented by Phyllocrinus stellaris Zar?czny, P. birkenmajeri G?uchowski, P. malbosianus d’Orbigny, Apsidocrinus sp., Lonchocrinus sp., and the new species Psalidocrinus hidasinus sp. nov. This last species is the earliest occurrence of the genus Psalidocrinus previously known from the Early Tithonian to Valanginian. This is the first crinoid fauna described from the Middle Jurassic (Bathonian) of Hungary. The co-occurrence of isocrinids and cyrtocrinids indicates an environment subject to weak currents. The stratigraphical and geographical distribution of the identified cyrtocrinid genera and species suggests a Tethyan origin and subsequent migration to the northern Tethyan shelf.     

Platyceratid gastropod infestations of Neoplatycrinus Wanner (Crinoidea) from the Permian of West Timor: speculations on thecal modifications

Distinctive trace fossils, indicating the infestation of the monobathrid camerate crinoid Neoplatycrinus Wanner by coprophagous platyceratid gastropods, are recognised for the first time from the Permian of West Timor. Platyceratid shells from West Timor have previously been reported preserved on or about the crinoid tegmen, that is, apically; in contrast, the trace fossils described herein occur in the CD interray (=posteriorly), mainly on the radials. There are two patterns of infestation in the CD interray. Circular grooves in this position, situated below the periproct, are referred to Lacrimichnus isp. Thecal modifications include the CD interray sloping towards the base, and incomplete curved ridges developed outside the circular groove and confined to the radials. A different morphology is shown by other specimens that have a broad, flattened CD interray, curving down to and extending onto the basals; this interray also slopes towards the base. These unusual CD interray modifications are interpreted as a product of snail/crinoid associations. We speculate that the major modifications to the theca may have permitted the platyceratid shell to mimic an uninfested CD interray and thus maintain the hydrodynamic integrity of the crown. This would have been to the advantage of both gastropod and crinoid. The camerates did not survive the P/Tr extinction; their demise ended an association that had persisted over 200 million years, although the platyceratids persisted into the Mesozoic.     

A primitive cladid crinoid from the Jiacun Group,Tibet (Darriwilian,Middle Ordovician)

A collection of numerous crinoid pluricolumnals from the uppermost Darriwilian (Middle Ordovician) of Tibet were derived from one biological species of crinoid. The specimens were collected from well‐lithified, bioclastic shelf limestones of the upper part of the Lower Chiatsun Group, Pygodus serra Biozone; coeval rocks of similar lithology outcrop at the summit of Everest. A new crinoid morphospecies, Segmentocolumnus (col.) hanshessi, is tentatively considered a ‘stem‐group cladid’, perhaps a dendrocrinid. The proxistele is broad and pentagonal in section with a broad, pentagonal axial canal; the mesistele of similar gross morphology is more slender with a regularly heteromorphic column and a similarly wide axial canal; the dististele is a terminal dendritic radice with a pentastellate axial canal. In the mesistele, the meric sutures correspond to the centres of the sides of the column, but in the dististele they occur in the angles. This range of morphologies would have led to their inclusion in at least two morphogenera if they had not been closely associated; as they belong to a single biological species, they have been ‘lumped’ together herein. This is a rare contribution to our knowledge of the early crinoids from a region outside Europe and North America. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Middle Ordovician crinoid from the beach gravels of Ristna Cape,Hiiumaa Island,Estonia

Reworked fossils may be exotic, but more typically are locally derived. Echinoderms have only rarely been identified from beach clasts; most commonly, these are Upper Cretaceous echinoids from the Chalk. A pebble collected from a beach in Estonia has yielded a moderately well preserved specimen of the crinoid stem, Baltocrinus (col.) antiquus (Eichwald). This species is typical of the Baltic region, only being known from the Middle Ordovician (Darriwilian) of Estonia, but is exotic because the local outcrop is Upper Ordovician to Silurian.     

First crinoid crown from the Permian Khuff Formation (Wordian) of Oman

Crinoidal debris is common from the basal parts of the open marine Khuff Formation in Oman; yet, little is known about the diversity and affinities of this fauna. Exallocrinus khuffensis n. gen., n. sp. is described from this unit, and is the first crinoid crown from outcrops of the Wordian, Lower Khuff Member, in the northern Huqf region of Oman. This new crinoid is among the youngest Paleozoic crinoids known, yet it has a combination of more stemward and crownward characters. Because of the uncertainties concerning the latest Paleozoic and earliest Mesozoic crinoid phylogeny, Exallocrinus n. gen. is questionably assigned to the Ampelocrinidae.