Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Echinoderma" to "Edward, prince of Wales": Volume 8, Slice 10Various
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Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Echinoderma" to "Edward, prince of Wales": Volume 8, Slice 10
Various
Encyclopedias and dictionaries
Order 1. _Dicyclica Inadunata._--Dicyclica in which the dorsal cup
primitively is confined to the patina and occasional intercalated
anals, and no other plates ever occur between RR (Grade: Distincta);
Br may be incorporated in the cup, with or without iBr, but never
rigidly, and their corresponding ambulacrals remain supra-tegminal
(Grade: Articulata); new columnals are introduced at the extreme
proximal end of the stem.
Sub-order i. _Cyathocrinoidea._--Tegmen stout with conspicuous
orals. Families: Carabocrinidae, Palaeocrinidae. Euspirocrinidae,
Sphaerocrinidae, Cyathocrinidae, Petalocrinidae, Crotalocrinidae,
Codiacrinidae, Cupressocrinidae, Gasterocomidae.
Sub-order ii. _Dendrocrinoidea._--Tegmen thin, flexible, with
inconspicuous orals. Families: Dendrocrinidae, Botryocrinidae,
Lophocrinidae, Scaphiocrinidae, Scytalecrinidae, Graphiocrinidae,
Cromyocrinidae, Encrinidae (preceding families are Distincta; the
rest Articulata), Pentacrinidae, including the recent _Isocrinus_
(fig. 14), Uintacrinidae, Marsupitidae, Bathycrinidae (recent).
Order 2. _Flexibilia._--Dicyclica in which proximal brachials are
incorporated in the dorsal cup, either by their own sides, or by
interbrachials, or by a finely plated skin, but never rigidly; plates
may occur between RR. Tegmen flexible, with distinct ambulacrals and
numerous small interambulacrals; mouth and food-grooves remain
supra-tegminal and open. Top columnal a persistent proximale, often
fusing with IBB, which are frequently atrophied in the adult.
All the Palaeozoic representatives have non-pinnulate arms, while the
Mesozoic and later forms have them pinnulate. There are other points
of difference, so that it is not certain whether the latter really
descended from the former. But assuming such a relationship we arrange
them in two grades.
Grade a. _Impinnata._--Families: Ichthyocrinidae, Sagenocrinidae,
and Taxocrinidae, perhaps capable of further division.
Grade b. _Pinnata._--Families: Apiocrinidae with the recent
_Calamocrinus_, Bourgueticrinidae with recent _Rhizocrinus_,
Antedonidae, Atelecrinidae, Actinometridae, Thaumatocrinidae (these
four recent families include free-moving forms with atrophied stem,
probably derived from different ancestors), Eugeniacrinidae,
Holopodidae (recent), Eudesicrinidae.
[Illustration: FIG. 14.--A living Pentacrinid, _Isocrinus asteria_;
the first specimen found, after Guettard's figure published in 1761.]
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