Pentremites

Pentremites is an extinct genus of blastoid echinoderm belonging to the family Pentremitidae.[1]

Pentremites
Temporal range:
Pentremites godoni from the Lower Carboniferous of Illinois.
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Echinodermata
Class:
Blastoidea
Order:
Spiraculata
Family:
Pentremitidae
Genus:
Pentremites
Species
  • Pentremites aridus Webster and Lane 1970
  • Pentremites conoideus Hall 1856
  • Pentremites cristalensis Macurder 1964
  • Pentremites elongatus Shumard 1855
  • Pentremites godoni
  • Pentremites kirki Hambach 1903
  • Pentremites pentremites Hernon 1935
  • Pentremites pyriformis
  • Pentremites rusticus Hambach 1903
  • Pentremites sulcatus Roemer 1851

[1]

Description

These stalked echinoderms averaged a height of about 11 centimetres (4.3 in) but occasionally ranged up to about 3 times that size. They, like other blastoids, superficially resemble their distant relatives, the crinoids or sea lilies, having a near-identical, planktivorous lifestyle living on the sea floor attached by a stalk. As with all other blastoids, species of Pentremites trapped food floating in the currents by means of tentacle-like appendages.[2]

Pentremites species lived in the early to middle Carboniferous, from 360.7 to 314.6 Ma. Its fossils are known from North America.[1]

References
  1. The Paleobiology Database
  2. Museum of Victoria
  • Fossils (Smithsonian Handbooks) by David Ward (Page 190)


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