Sunday, April 30, 2023

Tholocrinus spinosus Calyx Crinoid Fossil


These pictures are of a recent fossil find from the Glen Dean Member of Grayson County, Kentucky USA. It is a crinoid calyx fossil that appears to be a Tholocrinus spinosus (Wood, 1909). The fossil dates to the Mississippian Period.  Thanks to Kenny for the images.

 

In 1909, Elvira Wood (1865-1928) published A Critical Summary of Troost's Unpublished Manuscript on the Crinoids of Tennessee. On page 93, she names a new crinoid species Hydreionocrinus spinosus after the fossil by Wetherby who described it in 1881 as Hydreionocrinus depressus found by Troost. She writes that Wetherby had actually found a new species and thus she names it. It's genus was later changed to Tholocrinus (Kirk, 1939).


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