| Abstract: | 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. |
