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.     

The stratigraphy and sedimentology of the Ordovician Partry Group,southeastern Murrisk,Ireland

The uppermost part of the Ordovician succession in southeastern Murrisk, western Ireland, consists of coarse-grained sedimentary rocks and tuffs, the Partry Group, hitherto subdivided into the Mweelrea Formation, unconformably overlain by the Maumtrasna Formation. The age of the lower part of the succession is late Llanvirn whilst that of the upper part is unknown. Evidence is presented to show that the two formations are lateral equivalents. Consequently the Mweelrea Formation is redefined and the Maumtrasna Formation becomes redundant. The revision of the stratigraphy enables a coherent sedimentological model for the group to be proposed. The sediments of the Mweelrea Formation were deposited on alluvial fans and distally-equivalent alluvial plains and delta fans. The direction of sediment transport was towards the north and northwest.     

The nature and field relations of the Ordovician Maumtrasna Formation,County Mayo,Ireland

The nature and field relationships of the Maumtrasna Formation of the Partry Mountains, Co. Mayo, show that the formation underlies the regionally mappable Glenummera Formation, which is of Llanvirn age, and it is laterally equivalent to the Rosroe and Derrylea Formations, also of Llanvirn age. The formation rests unconformably on two different volcanic domains, the basic volcanics of the Bohaun Volcanic Formation to the northwest (of unknown age) and the largely acidic volcanics and sediments of the Tourmakeady Volcanic succession to the southeast (Arenig). It is not the youngest formation in the Ordovician succession of the South Mayo Trough, as was previously thought. This largely conglomeratic unit forms a coarsening upward sequence deposited on alluvial fans which were inundated by a marine transgression at the base of the Glenummera Formation. Clasts in the conglomerates are mainly of granite and porphyry with a minor metamorphic component. The source is interpreted as an arc rooted on a metamorphic basement which lay to the south and east. The suggestion that this area was present day Connemara finds little support. This area may expose some of the ‘hidden’ geology of the Midland Valley of Scotland.