Three genera of blastoids have been recorded from the Gympie Beds, or Carbopermian, of the Rockhampton District of Queensland. They are, _Mesoblastus_, _Granatocrinus_ and _Tricoelocrinus_. A similar fossil in beds of like age, and provisionally referred to the genus _Metablastus_, has been lately recorded from Glenwilliam, Clarence Town, New South Wales. _ASTEROIDEA, or Starfishes._ =Characters of True Starfishes.--= These free-moving echinoderms are usually five-sided, though sometimes star-shaped, with numerous arms surrounding a central disc. The mouth is central on the under side of the disc, and the anus above and near the centre (excentric), the latter being covered by a porous plate called the madreporite. The hydraulic system of starfishes consists of tubes extending along the grooved arms and giving off side branches which end in processes called podia and terminating in suckers. The podia pass through pores in the floor plates of the grooves, and communicate within the body with distensions called ampulla. By this means the podia serve as feet, and can be withdrawn by the expulsion of the water in them into the ampulla. The stout flexible covering of the starfish is strengthened by calcareous plates and bars, owing to the presence of which they are often preserved as fossils. [Illustration: =Fig. 77.--FOSSIL STARFISH.= A--Palaeaster smythi. McCoy sp. Silurian. Flemington, Victoria. B--Urasterella selwyni, McCoy. Silurian. Kilmore, Victoria. C--Palaeaster giganteus, Eth. fil. Carbopermian. Near Farley, New South Wales. D--Pentagonaster sp. Tertiary (Janjukian). Bore in Mallee, Victoria. ] =Silurian Starfishes.--= The oldest Australian fossil Starfishes are found in the Silurian. In Victoria they occur in some abundance in the lower, Melbournian, series, but appear to be absent or at all events very scarce in the upper, or Yeringian series. The commonest genus is _Palaeaster_, of which there are two species, _P. smythi_ (Fig. 77 A) and _P. meridionalis_, found alike in the sandy and argillaceous strata near Melbourne. _Urasterella_ is another genus found in the Silurian rocks near Melbourne, in which the marginal series of plates seen in _Palaeaster_ are wanting, giving to the starfish a slender, long-armed aspect (Fig. 77 B). =Carbopermian Starfishes.--= In the Lower Marine Series of the Carbopermian of New South Wales a very large species of _Palaeaster_ occurs (_P. giganteus_), measuring 7 inches from point to point across the disc (Fig. 77 C). Two other species of the same genus occur in this series (_P. stutchburii_ and _P. clarkei_) the latter also ranging into the Upper Marine Series. =Cainozoic Starfishes.--=