The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-04-19

he died in 1859-is remembered by Troost in an
Actinocmus, occurring here. Troost also re-
bered Agassiz. Owen, Worthen and Meek all
psychologists of note, are Latinized and
hitched to ponderous Greek words-the latter to
the hybrid Anglo Grecian compound. Forbeseo-
crinus, giving US .'Forbeseocrinus Meeki-" Nor
are tine local lights forgotten, such as Hovey and
Corey, as well as Cox and Collett- Collects
Professor Cox kindly consented to let
his cognomen adorn a pearly nautilus
This pleasant custom of consignng ones name
posterity by attaching it to plants and animals
living or extinct. is more honored in the breach
than in the observance among naturalists, but
it is not likely to 60 into decadence in Indiana or
elsewhere.
OF the habits and ways Of life of the senten.
animals which secreted from the ocean waters
the lmy remains of the crinoids. little is known
They were radiates and allied in structure to the
sea urchins, sand dollars, star FISH and basket
fish of our Atlantic coasts. Their tribe is about
extinct. stemmed crlnoid is found in the
West Indies another species, the coruatula, now
living, has a stem in it's early stages which be-
comes detached, and the body is free These
stems have been variously regarded. They are
found in the sand of creeks; in the gravel of our
streets. Small round, fat stones, with holes
rayed star upon their sides, have been found in
most rock and soil formed In the
bottoms of the paleozoic seas the
entire se world over They e:y. are .k known
beads" and have been worn for ornaments, and
prayers counted on them when strung for rosa
ries. They bothered the scientists two centuries
ago, and were called by them ''trachites," from
''trachus." wheel. Then when the stems and
head were found together they were regarded as
fossil plants, and called crinoids. from the Greek
word for lily. Cuvier first discovered their true
natxeA and showed they were not marine palm
trees, but radated animals allied TO the star
fish. Since his time the crinoids have received
tfah OFT oCcTU fofoc hot mn To ITO
time $50 writer's had published their investiga-
tons on the crincds, and the works were a
library in themselves. Of their endless variety,
complexity and beauty Agassiz said: after
thirty years of study of these fossil crnoids,
| am every day astonished by some new
evidence of the ingenuity, the invention, the
skill, if may so speak, shown in varying this
single pattern of animal life. They seem to me
like the production Of one who handles his work
with an infinite ease and delight, taking pleasure
in presenting the same thought under thousand
different aspects" Professor Bassett concludes,
as the result of long observation these beds.
that the natural position of the crinoid was hori-
zontal, rather than vertical like plant as is
generally supposed. They lived in the mud at
the bottom of the sea. The stem, he thinks,
died at its distal end--root extremity-and often
long before the animal died as whole. He
thinks they were often broken while yet alive
perhaps when forcing themselves through the
mud. In the great slab which Professor Cope
now has, of eighty crinoids only six were entire
and these were either young specimens or small
species. The rest were broken, he thinks before
they were fossilized and while they were yet
alive.
The largest 'head," or ''calyx," as it is called,
that he has ever found was seven inches in ex-
tent. 1t is of the species Barycrinus giganteus.
This head is really the body, and contained the
vital organs. From it radated the wonderfully
varied arms, and to it was attached the stem,
which was flexible. although composed of hun
dreds OF the circular disks spoken OF as pulley
stones and st. Cuthbert's beads.
Professor Bassett thinks there is well-marked
deterioration in the crinoids as the ascent is
made to the higher strata. Some of the stems
at the top, if the heads they bore were in pro-
portion to those stems and heads found together,
must have supported bodies eighteen inches to
two feet in length. He also thinks that, con-
trary to the views of Murchison and some of the
earlier biologists, who represent the crinoids
with their long slender proboscis thrust into the
open shells of mollusks, upon which the
crinoid was supposed to be feeding, that
really the mollusK was eating the soft parts of
the crinoid head and arms. 1t is well known
that the star fish of our seas can open and suck
out the nutritve portions of the oyster and other
she'll fish, but how and upon what the ancient
crinoidS fed, and whether they ate oysters or
oysters ate them, or each ate the other, is not
yet determined These are the only conclusions
to which Prof Bassett can come as to the habits
and physiology of the crinoids Of the early seas.
Of the popular magazine articles on this group,
for February, 1879, he says that the sreculations
advanced are very beautiful and attractive, but
misleading and erroneous.
In conclusion, it is due to Prof. Bassett to say
that he makes claim to profound and un-
erring knowledge of these forms, and while he
has written various popular articles about
them. he has never published any systematic
report upon them, describing and naming those
he believes to be species. He learned to
love this group as a student of the venerable
Professor Hovey in Wabash College, he has
followed it up as an avocation rather than a
vocation, and finally bought the bed, and has
from summer to summer dug off a new ledge
forty feet, exposing new layer OF fossils, and
sometimes only to have them dug up, stolen and
sold by local collectors, who even took prizes at
the State fair upon the result of their enterprise
at his expense. Professor Bassett is collector
and specialist in this richest known field of the
world, and deserves the kind regard and esteem
which he receives from those greater general
izers and systematsts who could not compass all
the story of the world told in its successive
rocky leaves without such devotion and perse
verance as he has shown. A. W. B.