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New echinoderms from the Early Ordovician of west Texas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 May 2016

James Sprinkle  and
Gregory P. Wahlman
James Sprinkle
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences, University of Texas, Austin 78712
Gregory P. Wahlman
Affiliation:
Amoco Production Company, P.O. Box 3092, Houston, Texas 77253
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Abstract

Four specimens of blastozoan and crinozoan echinoderms are described from the Lower Ordovician El Paso Group in the southern Franklin Mountains just north of El Paso, west Texas. Cuniculocystis floweri n. gen. and sp., based on two partial specimens, appears to be a typical rhombiferan in most of its morphologic features except that it lacks pectinirhombs and instead has covered epispires (otherwise known only from Middle Ordovician eocrinoids) opening on most of the thecal plate sutures. The covered epispires in Cuniculocystis indicate that some early rhombiferans had alternate respiratory structures and had not yet standardized on pectinirhombs, a feature previously used as diagnostic for the class Rhombifera. Bockia? elpasoensis n. sp. is a new eocrinoid based on one poorly preserved specimen that has a small ellipsoidal theca and unbranched brachioles attached to a flat-topped spoutlike summit. It is the earliest known questionable representative of this genus and the only one that has been described from North America. Elpasocrinus radiatus n. gen. and sp. is an early cladid inadunate crinoid based on a single well-preserved calyx. It fits into a lineage of early cladids leading to the dendrocrinids and to Carabocrinus. Several additional separate plates, stem segments, and a holdfast of these and other echinoderms are also described.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 68 , Issue 2 , March 1994 , pp. 324 - 338
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

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