Stephen K. Donovan

Trearne Quarry in north Ayrshire, south-west Scotland, is a Brigantian (Mississippian) age Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) with a diverse marine biota. The crinoids are notable, many species being known from well-preserved cups and columns showing pitted infestations. The horizon considered herein is named, informally, the Ureocrinus boc...

There is little known of the diversity of Silurian crinoids in Scotland. Rather than wait in hope for a new Lagerstätte , our knowledge of the fauna can be improved by recognising imperfectly preserved specimens, such as disarticulated columnals. Pentagonopentagonalis (col.) annulus sp. nov. is here recorded from the Llandovery (Rhuddanian) Mulloch...

The Lower Pennsylvanian (Upper Carboniferous) echinoderm fauna of Co. Clare, hitherto limited to the crinoids, now includes a primitive echinoid, echinoid gen. et sp. indet. The Paleozoic echinoids of the UK and Ireland are somewhat poorly known due to their common imperfect preservation, so any new specimen from a hitherto depauperate stratigraphi...

The Upper Pliocene Hopegate Formation of north central Jamaica is a dolomitized raised reef. Hitherto, its palaeontology has been largely ignored because of the poor preservation; the Hopegate Formation is highly karstified, well indurated and fossils are commonly preserved as molds. However, moldic preservation has enhanced the common borings. Ich...

The Almería-Níjar Basin is a Neogene, intermontane depression marginal to the Mediterranean in southern Spain in the vicinity of El Argamasón, Andalucia. The Pliocene Cuevas Formation rests unconformably on the Upper Messinian rock succession in the Carboneras Fault Zone. The Cuevas Formation is a coarse-grained, bioclastic-rich, calcarenite to cal...

In the Netherlands, Late Palaeozoic pelmatozoans – that is, stalked echinoderms – are known from building stones and cobbles in rivers, but there are no in-situ carbonate rocks from which they might be collected. Unsurprisingly, most recognisable specimens are columnals and pluricolumnals. Two small thecae, collected in the mid-1970s from silexite...

Many aspects of the palaeontology of the Isle of Wight are well known, but less so its ichnology. A turtle bone, Emys? sp., from the Lower Oligocene (Rupelian) Hamstead Member, Bouldnor Formation, exposed on the north coast of the island, preserves an unusual surface etching. Dictyoporus nodosus Mägdefrau is recorded from the Paleogene for the firs...

Some fossils, such as crinoid stems, are not widely appreciated by collectors and researchers, yet can provide unique data regarding taphonomy and palaeoecology. A long crinoid pluricolumnal showing a distinctive pattern of preservation was collected from the Clare Shale Formation (Upper Carboniferous) at Fisherstreet Bay, Doolin, County Clare, wes...

In any collection of Upper Palaeozoic crinoid columnals, dominated by the circular and the pentagonal, the elliptical articular facets of platycrinitid monobathrids stand out. One of the geologically youngest regions from which platycrinitids are known is the Permian (Artinskian to Roadian) of the Basleo area of West Timor, from which over a dozen...

To reflect the nearly 65 years of active research into extinct decapod and thoracican crustaceans (Pleocyemata, Anomura, Brachyura and Cirripedia) by the late Joe Collins, a varied array of papers on polychelid lobsters, paguroid and galatheoid anomurans, brachyurans and scalpellomorph and balanomorph cirripedes is compiled in the present memorial...

Who collects the Devonian crinoids of south‐west England? Since the nineteenth century, almost nobody. Few palaeontologists pursue these fossils, undoubtedly handsome in life, but indifferently preserved. Herein, we make a survey of four of the most important crinoid sites, all of which have the potential to produce new specimens.

‘Train crash crinoids’ represent an unusual mode of preservation of crinoid columns, superficially resembling to the carriages of a crashed train. They were exhumed from the White Peak (Mississippian limestones) of the Peak District in the Treak Cliff area of Castleton, Derbyshire, north‐central England, and were presented by Broadhurst & Simpson a...

Isolated bones of three taxa of marine reptiles (Mosasaurus hoffmannii Mantell, Plioplatecarpus marshi Dollo and Allopleuron hofmanni (Gray)) from various levels within the Maastricht Formation (upper Maastrichtian) at the former ENCI-HeidelbergCement Group quarry (Maastricht, the Netherlands) exhibit bioerosional traces and encrustation. Episkelet...

Early Palaeozoic crinoids are known only patchily from the British Isles except for accumulations at starfish beds. A single, exquisitely preserved crinoid is reported from the Telychian (Llandovery, Silurian) of the Pysgotwr Grits Formation of the Llangurig area, Powys, mid-Wales. This sedimentary succession is turbiditic in origin and poorly foss...

Fieldwork in the twenty‐first century is the subject of health and safety legislation and paperwork, as we don our luminous jackets and protective helmets. Sometimes, the geology can feel like an afterthought. Contrast this with the Freelance Geological Society in the late 1940s and after, in the field most weekends, collecting, climbing and caving...

Only two nominal species of crinoid, the diplobathrid camerates Diabolocrinus craigheadensis Ramsbottom and Diabolocrinus globularis (Nicholson and Etheridge), have been described from the Ordovician (Chatfieldian; Sandbian) Craighead Limestone Formation, Craighead Quarry, near Girvan, Ayrshire. In contrast, columnal morphotaxa are represented by o...

Ranging from the Jurassic to the Pleistocene, the fossil record of decapod crustaceans in the British Isles is extensive, comprised of 159 species (including those in open nomenclature) assigned to 101 genera. Preservation is variable, but most taxa are based upon carapace material; the study of disarticulated limb elements has added surprisingly l...

Schoor, D.I.E., Donovan, S.K. & Webster, G.D. 12 September 2019. Camptocrinus Wachsmuth & Springer or Neocamptocrinus Willink? Distinctive crinoid columnals from the Permian of Timor. Alcheringa XX, XXX–XXX. ISSN 0311-5518 Only one nominal species of the monobathrid camerate crinoid Camptocrinus Wachsmuth & Springer is known from the Permian of Tim...

Crinoids are uncommon fossils in the Cenozoic. This scarcity means that even disarticulated elements are of note. Two species of the isocrinine Isselicrinus Rovereto are described from their disarticulated columns. Isselicrinus sp. A is from the upper Eocene Moritzian Stage of Tierra del Fuego. These crinoids have a robust column, varying from pent...

Ever since the first description of fossil material during the mid-nineteenth century, sea grass has been shown to be quite commonly preserved in ‘pockets’ or ‘clumps’ at certain levels within the Gulpen, Maastricht and Kunrade formations in southern Limburg (the Netherlands) and contiguous areas in northeast Belgium. In those places where silicifi...

Of the two highly fossiliferous but contrasting sedimentary successions in the upper Pliocene of Jamaica, only the fossils of the Bowden shell beds have received adequate study. The Hopegate Formation of the island’s central north coast is a thick and areally extensive unit, a raised reef rich in fossil scleractinian corals and benthic molluscs. Ho...

The large holasteroid echinoid Hemipneustes striatoradiatus (Leske) was exploited by diverse invertebrate encrusters and borers during the Maastrichtian, both pre- and post-mortem. In life, the specimen described herein was perforated by multiple Oichnus simplex Bromley borings close to the apical system. Each engendered a growth reaction from the...

The fossil biota of the Eocene Yellow Limestone Group of Jamaica is diverse in vertebrates and, particularly, invertebrates. However, its invertebrate trace fossils remain understudied. Herein, we document the borings of the Seven Rivers vertebrate site in western Jamaica. This is in the Litchfield Formation, high in the Lutetian (about mid-Middle...

Write field guides! Not just to areas of classic geology, although these are particularly important, but also to your local area. These will be an aid to the local geologist, for their own pleasure and information, and, if relevant, for that of their students. But such guides will be of particular importance to local residents and amateur naturalis...

The Antilles include over 100 islands, each with a rock record that embraces different slices of the stratigraphic succession; this is probably the most beguiling geological quality of the region. Both authors have been collecting fossil crabs (decapod crustaceans) from these islands for almost 30 years. Experience has demonstrated that, whatever f...

The robust calcite rostra (or guards) of belemnites were attractive substrates for some boring organisms in the Mesozoic. The rostra of belemnitellid coleoids are common at certain levels within the Gulpen and Maastricht formations of the extended type area of the Maastrichtian Stage (Upper Cretaceous) in the south-east Netherlands and north-east B...

Crinoids and brachiopods are described from the Silurian Uzyan Formation of the Zilair Zone in the southern Urals. The occurrence of the graptolites Coronograptus praedeubeli suggests a late Homerian (Wenlock) age for the strata. A new disparid crinoid, Cicerocrinus gracilis Donovan sp. nov., is the oldest known member of this genus. It has a long,...

Many academics retire, yet continue to tread a well-worm research path. In contrast, retirement may also be a time for reinvention and changes in direction—place, name, institutional links, where to publish, and what to review. These changes may be by pursuing a more restricted research agenda, but in a way convenient or interesting to the retiree....

The fossil echinoderms of the Lower Carboniferous (Mississippian) of Derbyshire remain understudied, principally due to the nature of the preservation rather than any lack of biodiversity. Echinoids and crinoids are described in float blocks of limestone from near Hurdlow, Derbyshire, which have been etched naturally after many years of being washe...

A new collection of brachyuran decapod crustaceans (crabs) from the Mio-Pliocene Seroe Domi Formation of Curaçao totals 284 specimens. They exhibit excellent preservation of fine details, including fragile spines and delicate surface textures; however, the majority of the specimens are fragmented and disarticulated. Seven genera are identified from...

Large, denuded tests of holasteroid echinoids were robust benthic islands in the Late Cretaceous seas of northwest Europe. A test of Hemipneustes striatoradiatus (Leske) from the Nekum Member (Maastricht Formation; upper Maastrichtian) of southern Limburg, the Netherlands, is encrusted by a large oyster, Pycnodonte (Phygraea) vesiculare (Lamarck)....

Trombonicrinus (col.) hanshessi gen. et sp. nov. is a crinoid species of unusual morphology and is based solely on the stem. It comes from the (probably Lower) Devonian of Tafraoute, Anti Atlas Mountains, Morocco. It is a long crinoid stem of circular section, tapering distally throughout, with a tight curvature through 180º between the mesistele a...

The taphonomy of trace fossils and their substrates remains an understudied facet of sedimentary geology. Contrary to common prejudice, trace fossils are not invariably preserved in situ, but may be exhumed and reworked following lithification. The trace fossils most commonly found ex situ are borings in mobile shelly substrates. Two notable, but c...

The Middle Ordovician (Darriwilian) echinoderm fauna of Bang Mueang Song Tho, western Thailand (Pha Phum group, Bo Ngam Formation(?)), includes rare thecae, and common thecal ossicles and columnals, and is dominated by ‘cystoids’. Cheirocrinid glyptocystitoids include Cheirocystella sp. (= Echinoencrinites sp. aff. E. senckenbergii (von Meyer) sens...

The fossil record of certain productive sites from the Neogene of Jamaica has been collected using bulk sampling and sediment processing techniques. As emphasized by a recent review, such methodologies are not generally applied to the search for fossil decapods. Examples of horizons which have yielded plentiful specimens and species of decapods thr...

A test of the holasteroid echinoid Hemipneustes striatoradiatus (Leske) from the upper Meerssen Member (subunit IVf-6; Maastricht Formation) in the type area of the Maastrichtian Stage (Late Cretaceous) was infested by 170 non-penetrative pits assigned to Oichnus excavatus (Donovan and Jagt). The echinoid is assumed to have been alive at that time....

The rarity of certain taxa in the type Devonian, south-west England, may be real, but it is probably, in part, an artefact of preservation. In part this is a product of Variscan deformation, but disarticulation of multi-element skeletons into minute plates must also be a contributory factor. Echinoids are rare from these deposits and were hitherto...

The most species-rich and widespread crinoid clade in the type area of the Devonian of south-west England is the monobathrid camerate family Hexacrinitidae Wachsmuth and Springer. These crinoids occur either as thecae (Middle Devonian) or pluricolumnals and columnals (Lower to Upper Devonian). The first new, nominal species of hexacrinitid, probabl...

A collection of unremarkably preserved fossil irregular echinoids from the Upper Oligocene (Chattian) Antigua Formation of Antigua, Lesser Antilles, nonetheless provides evidence of a range of palaeoecological interactions. A dead test of the heart urchin Eupatagus sp. formed a hard substrate for the attachment of gregarious Thecidellina? sp., a th...

An exceptionally well-preserved and long crinoid stem is exposed on a slab of decorative Lower Carboniferous (Mississippian) limestone in front of an opticians in Maastricht-Wyck, the Netherlands. The pluricolumnal is incomplete, but is c. 176.5 mm long by at least 7.0 mm wide and with a broad axial canal. The column is heteromorphic, N3231323. The...

Silurian echinoderms from Ireland are poorly known; hitherto, only three nominal species have been described, all crinoids and all from the Telychian (Upper Llandovery, Lower Silurian) Kilbride Formation in County Galway. A new species from this formation, Crepidosoma doylei, is the first recorded Irish Silurian ophiuroid (brittle star). The new sp...

There were few publications on the British Devonian Crinoidea between the last parts of the Reverend G.F. Whidborne’s monograph in the 1890s and 1900s and the revival of interest in these faunas in the 21st Century. The paper records two Devonian cladid crinoids collected in the 19th Century; neither was described nor illustrated hitherto. Both are...

Three echinoid genera are identified from Visean (Mississippian, Lower Carboniferous) rocks of the Peak District, namely Melonechinus Meek & Worthen, Archaeocidaris M9Coy and Lepidocidaris Meek & Worthen. Even the best preserved specimens from this area only occur as a jumble of plates. Melonechinus etheridgei (Keeping) (Chadian? to Brigantian?) ha...

Echinoids are poorly known from the Devonian of SW England. This report records an external mould of a solitary primary spine in a chert cobble collected from near the site of Wolborough Quarry, SW Devon, a well-known Middle Devonian palaeontological site. However, cherts are rare in Devonian limestones of south Devon and the spine is unusually rob...

Limestones of the Upper Oligocene Antigua Formation of Antigua contain unusual burrows filled with the densely packed debris of shelly benthos. Unlined burrows (Planolites?) in deep-water biofacies at Half Moon Bay, parish of Saint Philip, are packed with a monospecific assemblage of large benthic foraminiferans (Lepidocyclina canelli Lemoine & Dou...

Specimens of epifaunal irregular echinoids in the Upper Cretaceous of northern Europe have been reported with patterns of circular, nonpenetrative parabolic pits, Oichnus paraboloides (Bromley), in the apical region. Specimens of Echinocorys scutata Leske from the Chalk at two sites in southeast England were commonly penetrated by this trace, gener...

In north-west Europe, the Permian is limited to the New Red Sandstone and the restricted marine facies of the Zechstein, yet elsewhere it is constituted of thick marine deposits with an abundant shelly fauna. One of the most notable sites for the marine Permian is the island of Timor in south-east Asia, where thick, olistostromic blocks of limeston...

The best preserved specimen of the Late Pleistocene land crab Sesarma sp. cf. S. cookei Hartnoll from the Red Hills Road Cave, Jamaica, was illustrated in an earlier paper, but lost. This note announces its rediscovery and registration in the collections of the Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden. Copyright

The ichnogenus Tremichnus Brett was established for small round pits in echinoderm endoskeletons, principally crinoids. It is morphologically identical to Oichnus Bromley. It is significant that infestation of the echinoderm test is an integral part of any diagnosis of Tremichnus. This is an unacceptable ichnotaxobase; the diagnosis should only def...

Following 3 days of gales in the North Sea off the Dutch coast, one part of the beach at Katwijk, Zuid-Holland, was littered with shells (cuttlebones) of the common cuttlefish, Sepia officinalis Linné. Over 100 specimens were collected. These Sepia may have died at the same time, with the storm as the probable cause of death (=life assemblage); alt...

For a land with a dearth of natural rock outcrops, the Netherlands abounds with urban ‘exposures’ of fossiliferous rocks such as building stones, street furniture and street art. In the Rapenburg in Leiden, sections through distinctive shells in Mississippian (Lower Carboniferous) limestones are identified as rostroconch molluscs (Order Conocardioi...

Despite changes in technology that have improved both production and the final product, small local journals still have a low profile and struggle to obtain adequate copy, in terms of both quality and quantity. My experiences as editor of two small journals in Jamaica in the 1990s provided similar problems to those that are encountered by many edit...

Red Hills Road Cave, Jamaica is a remnant of a karstic feature quarried away during road building. It is the most important site for Late Pleistocene terrestrial palaeontology on the island. The site is c . 30 ka old. Many taxa were washed in during hurricanes and tropical storms, either as dead carcasses or live organisms that drowned as the cave...

Piltdown Man was the most notable forgery in 20th Century science. It was published in 1913 and the falsification was not uncovered until 1953. The forger was the amateur archaeologist Charles Dawson (1864–1916). Dawson ‘found’ or was present at the discovery of every fragment of Piltdown Man. Few have appreciated Dawson's skill; he did much more t...

A flint erratic slab bearing a shell of the large inoceramid bivalve Volviceramus involutus (J. de C. Sowerby), with the valves oriented in a post-mortem 'butterfly' association, was collected from glacial float in an area of superficial deposits at Crimplesham, west Norfolk. This mollusc is typical of the Chalk and may be confined to the Coniacian...

Two crinoid pluricolumnals from Permian rocks of Timor show similar patterns of external pitting. Platycrinitid sp. preserves circular, parabolic pits that do not cross-cut between columnals, some have raised rims and at least one columnal shows a growth deformity. These pits are interpreted as the trace fossil Oichnus paraboloides Bromley. Crinoid...

Comments and replies (Letters to the Editor) are short notes arising from a published paper. They can be contentious, even hostile. However, comments may correct an original error or reveal alternative interpretations, support a new contribution or extend its discussion. Comments and replies can add to academic discourse, but they may tread the edg...

Recognizing the presence of a parasite and identifying it is a relatively straightforward task for the twenty-first century parasitologist. Not so the pursuit of ancient parasites in fossil organisms, a much more difficult proposition. Herein, Boucot's seven-tiered scheme of reliability classes is applied as a measure of confidence of the recogniti...

Donovan, S.K. & Webster, G.D. XX.XXXX.2016. A Permian Barycrinus? Wachsmuth (Crinoidea, Cladida) from Timor. Alcheringa 40, xxx–xxx. ISSN 0311-5518. A crinoid pluricolumnal from Noil Simaam, Timor, is identified as Barycrinus? sp., the youngest member of this otherwise Mississippian genus. Identifying features of this robust specimen include a mode...

The Freelance Geological Association (FGA) (1948–1967), formerly Society, was a group of amateurs based in south and south-east London. Enthusiastic early members founded the FGA shortly after World War Two, and defined its direction and form. The original driving interests were caving and fieldwork. At that time there were many quarries that were...

Although stemmed crinoids are well-known from modern oceans, the post-Palaeozoic Articulata represent a slender ‘twig’ that survived the demise of the many other clades forming a ‘bush’ of taxa that failed to survive the end-Permian mass extinction. Thus, although many aspects of form and ecology of extant stemmed crinoids can help explain the func...

Salthill Quarry, Clitheroe, Lancashire, is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and important for its Mississippian (Tournaisian, Chadian) crinoids. A pluricolumnal, Pentagonocyclicus? (col.) sp., preserves multiple pits, Oichnus paraboloides Bromley. Pits on one side of the specimen sit atop cyst-like structures and infested the crinoid wh...

Crinoid diversity and abundance was higher during the Early Carboniferous (Mississippian) than at any other time. Due to the systematic focus on more complete specimens of crinoids, some areas, like the White Peak of Derbyshire and Staffordshire, UK, have erroneously been considered poor in fossil crinoids. Indeed, cups and crowns have only rarely...

In a series of papers published between 1916 and 1949 Johannes Wanner assigned or reassigned more than 1700 crinoid specimens to 26 species or subspecies of Graphiocrinus. Nine of the 26 species were subsequently transfered to other cladid genera by Wanner or other authors. Study of the amalgamated Netherlands collections of the West Timor crinoids...

Rare Palaeozoic chert clasts collected from gravels in the bedload of the River Maas in the province of Limburg, south-east Netherlands, are rich in crinoid debris. These were transported during the Late Pliocene–Pleistocene by fluvial action from the southern Ardennes Massif (Namur-Dinant area, southern Belgium) and are of Early Carboniferous (Mis...

Devonian massive graphitic marble and calc-silicate schist, belonging to the Lower Formation of the Nevado-Filábride Complex of the Internal Zones of the Betic Cordillera, crop out extensively near A ´ guilas (Murcia, SE Spain). These rocks contain a rich fossil record even though they have undergone Alpine metamorphism and deformation (350–480uC;...

The first fossil echinoids are recorded from the Cayman Islands. A regular echinoid, Arbacia? sp., the spatangoids Brissus sp. cf. B. oblongus Wright and Schizaster sp. cf. S. americanus (Clark), and the clypeasteroid Clypeaster sp. are from the Middle Miocene Cayman Formation. Test fragments of the mellitid clypeasteroid, Leodia sexiesperforata (L...

Disarticulated crinoid ossicles, particularly columnals, from the Devonian of south-west England are locally common, but incompletely known; most studies have been in the 21st Century. A new collection of mouldic crinoid ossicles from the Lynton Formation (Lower/Middle Devonian) of the Valley of Rocks, west of Lynton, is rich in columnals of the mo...

A new collection of crinoids and rhombiferans from the Upper Ordovician (Katian) Lady Burn Starfish Beds of SW Scotland is small, yet contains several significant specimens. Two species hitherto known only from single specimens, the dendrocrinid cladid Cupulocrinus drummuckensis Kolata and the pisocrinid disparid Eocicerocrinus sevastopuloi Donovan...

Charles Dawson, FSA, FGS (1864-1916), was discoverer and presumed forger of Piltdown Man and the less well-known Barcombe Mills Man in East Sussex. Although the fossils were either fakes or salted from elsewhere, Dawson's geology was accurate apart from his over-estimate of the height of the Piltdown terrace above the River Ouse, leading to it bein...

The Red Hills Road Cave (RHRC), parish of St Andrew, Jamaica, is a karstic feature that has yielded a diverse Late Pleistocene (about 30, 000 years B.R) fauna of terrestrial invertebrates and vertebrates. The fossil invertebrates are now well known, but the vertebrates are invariably disarticulated and have largely discouraged detailed investigatio...