Circular 178—Pennsylvanian crinoids from Sangre De Cristo and Sacramento Mountains of New Mexico

By H. L. Strimple, 1980, 17 pp., 2 tables, 2 figs., 2 plates.

Discusses 12 species representing eight genera of inadunate crinoids reported from Lower and Middle Pennsylvanian strata of New Mexico. Two new species are proposed: Diphuicrinus santafeensis n. sp. and Aglaocrinus sutherlandi n. sp. Crinoids preserved as cups or crowns are seldom found because of the multiplated nature of the endoskeleton which is subject to rapid disarticulation upon demise of the animal unless quickly entombed in a soft matrix. Even when such specimens are preserved, tectonic stresses may distort them beyond recognition. Although the number of specimens is rather small, cups and some crowns are being found and recorded from Pennsylvanian strata of the southwestern and western U.S. The specimens have affinities with some previously known crinoid faunas from the midcontinental U.S. and the southern Appalachian Mountains.

Most of the material in the present study was collected by P. K. Sutherland and F. H. Harlow in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of New Mexico. A specimen was collected by C. C. Branson from near Alamogordo in the Sacramento Mountains; specimens collected from the same locality by W. M. Furnish, B. Furnish, C. Strimple, and the author are also included. All specimens are Early or Middle Pennsylvanian in age.
Twelve species are recognized, although one Paragassizocrinus, one Plaxocrinus, and one Metacromyocrinus are not identified to species. Seven of the species have been previously described from other geographic areas. Eight genera are involved, all belonging to the subclass Inadunata. Locality references for specimens form the Sangre de Cristo Mountains are those used by Sutherland and Harlow. Detailed information on localities is given in the locality register.

Although limited in numbers as well as geographic distribution, the material can be compared stratigraphically with somewhat better known faunas. Palmerocrinus profundus (Moore and Strimple) is know from the Wapanucka Formation (Morrowan) of southern Oklahoma and the Quivirrah Formation (Morrowan) of Utah. Paragassizocrinus caliculus (Moore and Plummer) has been reported from Bloydian (Morrowan) strata in northeast Oklahoma, northwest Arkansas, and southern Oklahoma. Diphuicrinus coalensis (Strimple and Moore) occurs in the Atoka Formation (Atokan) in Coal County, Oklahoma; D. santafeensis n. sp. is closely related to similar species in Atokan of lower Desmoinesian strata in Oklahoma. Anchicrinus planulatus (Moore and Strimple) is known from the Bloydian rocks in northeast Oklahoma and northwest Arkansas. Although considered a discrete species, Algaocrinus sutherlandi n. sp. has the same general appearance as A. keyti (Strimple and Moore) from the McCoy Formation of Colorado and other species of the genus in the Dornick Hills formation (Desmoinesian) of the Ardmore Basin in southern Oklahoma. Metacromyocrinus sp. shows close affinity with M. gillumi (Strimple) from the Morrowan of Arkansas and M. holdenvillensis (Strimple) of the Holdenville Formation (Desmoinesian) of Oklahoma.