Aphelecrinidae

Aphelecrinus elegans, copyright Joseph Koniecki.

Belongs within: Dendrocrinida.

The Aphelecrinidae are a group of slender-crowned crinoids known from the early Carboniferous (Moore et al. 1978).

Characters (from Moore et al. 1978): Crown slender cylindrical, flared upward, ovoid. Cup moderately low cone-shaped, height and width subequal; five small infrabasals upflared, rising directly from round columnar cicatrix; five relatively short basals; five radials and three anal plates in normal (primitive) arrangement. Arms uniserial, branching on primibrachs 1 in all rays except that in earlier forms first branching in A ray is above primibrach 2, all rays with one or subsequent isotomous bifurcations, pinnules long and stout. Anal sac slender, moderately to strongly reflexed, composed of series of small, polygonal plates. Column usually round, occasionally cirriferous.

Aphelecrinidae
    |--Missouricrinus Miller in Miller & Gurley 1891 WeM03
    |    `--*M. admonitus Miller in Miller & Gurley 1891 ML78
    |--Cosmetocrinus Kirk 1941 WaM03, ML78
    |    |--*C. gracilis Kirk 1941 ML78
    |    `--C. parvus WaM03
    |--Paracosmetocrinus Strimple 1967 WeM03
    |    |--*P. straki Strimple 1967 ML78
    |    |--P. delicatus Webster, Maples et al. 2003 WeM03
    |    |--‘Ascetocrinus’ scoparius (Hall 1861) WeM03
    |    `--‘Culmicrinus’ vagulus (Miller & Gurley 1895) WeM03
    `--Aphelecrinus Kirk 1944 LMW01 [=Ampelecrinus (l. c.) ML78, Amphelecrinus (l. c.) ML78]
         |--*A. elegans Kirk 1944 ML78
         |--A. elegantulus LMW01
         |--A. mundus ML78
         |--A. oweni ML78
         `--A. tensus (Whidborne 1896) [=Poteriocrinus tensus, Culmicrinus tensus, Hydriocrinus tensus] LMW01

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[LMW01] Lane, N. G., C. G. Maples & J. A. Waters. 2001. Revision of Late Devonian (Famennian) and some Early Carboniferous (Tournaisian) crinoids and blastoids from the type Devonian area of north Devon. Palaeontology 44 (6): 1043–1080.

[ML78] Moore, R. C., N. G. Lane, H. L. Strimple, J. Sprinkle & R. O. Fay. 1978. Inadunata. In: Moore, R. C., & C. Teichert (eds) Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology pt T. Echinodermata 2. Crinoidea vol. 2 pp. T520–T759. The Geological Society of America, Inc.: Boulder (Colorado), and The University of Kansas: Lawrence (Kansas).

[WM03] Waters, J. A., C. G. Maples, N. G. Lane, S. Marcus, Liao Z.-T., Liu L., Hou H.-F. & Wang J.-X. 2003. A quadrupling of Famennian pelmatozoan diversity: new Late Devonian blastoids and crinoids from northwest China. Journal of Paleontology 77 (5): 922–948.

[WM03] Webster, G. D., C. G. Maples, R. Mawson & M. Dastanpour. 2003. A cladid-dominated Early Mississippian crinoid and conodont fauna from Kerman Province, Iran and revision of the glossocrinids and rhenocrinids. Journal of Paleontology 77 (Suppl. 3): 1–35.