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A new species of Apiocrinites is described from the Matmor Formation (Middle Jurassic, upper Callovian) of Hamakhtesh Hagadol, southern Israel. Apiocrinites feldmani n. sp. is a small species associated with the larger A. negevensis in a calcareous sponge and coral patch reef community. During life the columns of A. feldmani were commonly and preferentially infested with a soft-bodied parasite that grew with the crinoid and became embedded in its skeleton. These parasites embedded at the articulation between columnals, forcing the columnals to grow around them and producing with time a conical pit surrounded by swollen stereom. If the parasite died while the crinoid was still growing, the conical pit was roofed over by continued growth of columnals, resulting in a swelling with no external opening. Because the crinoids invested energy in forming extra skeleton around these parasites and because the crinoid stems were consequently deformed and likely lost flexibility, we consider these parasites to have caused significant harm. Curiously, these parasites apparently did not infect the larger and more common contemporaneous A. negevensis that lived in the same community.

A new species ofApiocrinitesis described from the Middle Jurassic (Callovian) Matmor Formation of the Negev, Israel.Apiocrinites negevensisis from the tropical latitudes in the Tethys, in contrast to all other reported species of this genus. With a narrow radial facet and adjacent arms not in lateral contact and large aboral cup plates,A. negevensisis quite unusual for this genus.

A diverse and exceptionally preserved crinoid fauna is described from the Early Albian (Leymeriella tardefurcata Zone) Shenley Limestone of Leighton Buzzard (Bedfordshire, England). It is unusual in the presence of a number of species which are the last records of genera common in and typical of the Jurassic (the isocrinid Balanocrinus smithi sp. nov., the millericrinids Apiocrinites gillieroni (de Loriol) and an unnamed species of Apiocrinites, and the cyclocrinid Cyclocrinus variolarius (Seeley)), in association with the first record of the typically Cretaceous Roveacrinidae (Discocrinus integer sp. nov.). Sclerocrinids (Cyrtocrinida) are represented by Torynocinus canon and Torynocrinus globosus sp. nov. The excellent preservation of the material permits new and taxonomically important observations to be made on cup structure in the sclerocrinid and roveacrinid species, and the first description of Torynocrinus brachials. Additionally, the material includes different growth stages and brachials which allow for extended diagnoses of known species. The fauna is also remarkable for the association of differently sized stalked crinoids attached either by cirri or holdfasts, and a pelagic roveacrinid.

Valanginian strata in central epicratonic Poland have recently yielded crinoids, not previously recorded from the area. The fauna comprises isocrinids (Balanocrinus subteres, B. gillieroni, “Isocrinus?” lissajouxi), millericrinids (Apiocrinites sp.) and comatulids (Comatulida indet.). For comparison, a few samples of isocrinids from Valanginian strata of Hungary (Tethyan province) were also analysed. The isocrinids, cyrtocrinids and roveacrinids (sensu Rasmussen 1978 inclusive of Saccocoma sp.) were already known from the Valanginian of the southernmost Tethyan regions of Poland (Pieniny Klippen Belt and Tatra Mountains). The current study demonstrates their occurrence in central epicratonic Poland, and suggests that many Jurassic to Cretaceous stalked crinoid taxa (mainly isocrinids) predominated in the shallow-water settings of this area. Thus, the hypothesis of migration (at least from mid-Cretaceous onwards) to deep-water areas, as a response to an increase of the number of predators during the Mesozoic marine revolution, seems not to be universally applicable.

Columns of the articulate crinoids Millericrinus and Apiocrinites from the Upper Jurassic (Upper Callovian) Zohar and Matmor formations of the Negev Desert of Israel display abundant encrusting organisms of about ten species, as well as diverse trace fossils produced by endobionts. Pluricolumnals were colonized by epi- and endobiontic organisms both during life and post-mortem. Skeletonized encrusting organisms include abundant ostreid bivalves (which evidently colonized both live and dead crinoid columnals), two types of serpulid worms, encrusting foraminifera, three species of bryozoans, and small encrusting sclerosponges. Several types of borings are present: Trypanites (possibly produced by sipunculids), Gastrochaenolites (crypts of boring lithophagid bivalves), elliptical barnacle? borings, and channel-like annelid? borings. In addition, approximately 16% of the pluricolumnals display circular parabolic embedment pits assignable to the ichnogenus Tremichnus. They are associated with substantial deformation of the containing columnals and were probably the work of host-specific ectoparasitic organisms. Discovery of Tremichnus on Jurassic crinoids extends the range of this trace by almost 100 million years, providing evidence for one of the longest-ranging host-parasite interactions documented thus far (over 200 million years). The relationship of epibionts to the Jurassic crinoids thus ranged from simple utilization of dead hard substrate to probable opportunistic commensalism in forms that colonized the live upright stems, as in some oysters, through host-specific parasitism in the case of Tremichnus.

Jamaica has the best-known fauna of fossil crinoids of the Antillean islands. Two Cretaceous species have been reexamined on the basis of new material. Lower Cretaceous Apiocrinites sp., previously referred to Austinocrinus n. sp. and first documented from a short pluricolumnal, is now known from brachials and further fragments of column. This is the first millericrinid, and only the second non-isocrinid stalked crinoid, to be identified from the Jamaican and Antillean fossil record. Other ossicles may be derived from the cirri of a comatulid. Applinocrinus cretacea (Bather) is well known from the upper Senonian of England, North America and the West Indies, although Caribbean specimens have not been figured previously. Functional interpretations of the mode of life of Applinocrinus suggest that it was a benthic crinoid, presumably with arms. It lived embedded in the sediment.

The fine collection of Oolitic fossils which was made by the late Mr. William Walton, of Bath, and was purchased some years ago by the University of Cambridge, contains a very remarkable series of specimens of a Crinoid from the Great oolite of Lansdown, a well-known hill at Bath. Its occurrence seems to have been first recorded (though not first noted) in the year 1828 by the late Dr. J.E. Gray, who made a curious error with regard to this geological horizon, stating it to have been found in the Lias. He named the type Apiocrinites Prattii , and described it as intermediate in character between the A. ellipticus and A. rotundus of Miller. Some years after the publication (1821) of the well-known work on Crinoids by the last-named author, some specimens of this species were shown to him by the Rev. H. Jelly, who states that Miller “was unable to satisfy his own mind as to their true nature and history.” in the year 1833 a semipopular illustrated account of these fossils was published by Mr. Jelly, and about the same time they were redescribed by Goldfuss, with the aid of some excellent figures, under the name of A. obconicus . he had, however , smaller series of specimens than those at Jelly9s disposal, some of which now form part of the Walton collection; and the great peculiarity of the type, viz. the very variable length of the stem, which had been previously noted by Jelly, did not attract his attention.