Elgaecrinus uralicus gen. et sp. nov. (Crotalocrinitidae, Crinoidea, Echinodermata), a reef-dwelling crinoid, is described from the Lochkovian (Lower Devonian) of the western slope of the Middle Urals. The arms of the new species are laterally fused in each radius and represent, as in the similar genus Crotalocrinites, uniform semi-mobile plates surrounding the central cavity above the oral surface in an en echelon series. This crown architecture allowed for feeding in rapidly changing turbulent currents characteristic of the reef zone.
Arendt, Yu. A. & Hecker, R. Ph. 1960. Klass Crinoidea. Systematicheskaya chast′ [Systematic descriptions]. In Osnovy paleontologii. Spravochnik dlya paleontologov i geologov SSSR, Iglokozhie [Fundamentals of Palaeontology. Reference-Book for Palaeontologists and Geologists of the USSR. Echinoderms] (Hecker, R. Ph., ed.), pp. 80–105. Izdatel′stvo Akademii Nauk SSSR, Moscow.
Bassler, R. S. 1938. Pelmatozoa Palaeozoica. In Fossilium catalogus, 1: Animalia (Quensstedt, V., ed.), pp. 1–194. W. Junk, s’Gravenhage.
Breimer, A. 1978. Autecology. In Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology. Part T: Echinodermata (Moore, R. C. & Teichert, C., eds), pp. T331–T345. Geological Society of America and University of Kansas Press, Boulder, Colorado, Lawrence, Kansas.
Brett, C. E. 1984. Autecology of Silurian pelmatozoan echinoderms. In Autecology of Silurian Organisms (Bassett, M. G. & Lawson, J. D., eds), Special Papers in Palaeontology, 32, 87–120.
Fell, H. B. 1966. Ecology of crinoids. In Physiology of Echinodermata (Boolootian, R. A., ed.), pp. 87–127. Interscience Publications, N.Y.
Lowenstam, H. A. 1957. Niagaran reefs in the Great Lakes area. Memoirs of the Geological Society of America, 62, 215–248.
https://doi.org/10.1130/MEM67V2-p215
Meyer, D. L. 1973. Feeding behavior and ecology of shallow-water unstalked crinoids (Echinodermata) in the Caribbean Sea. Marine Biology, 22, 105–109.
https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00391776
Meyer, D. L. 1979. Morphological length and spacing of the tube feet in crinoids (Echinodermata) and their role in suspension-feeding. Marine Biology, 51, 361–369.
Rozhnov, S. V. 1981. Morskie lilii nadsemeistva Pisocrinacea [Crinoids of the Superfamily Pisocrinacea]. Nedra, Moscow, 127 pp.
Webster, G. D. 2012. Devonian cladid crinoid evolution, diversity and first and last occurrences: summary observations. In Earth and Life, International Year of Planet Earth (Talent, J. A., ed.), pp. 557–584. Springer, Dordrecht.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3428-1_17
Yakovlev, N. N. 1949. O sushchestvovanii v verkhakh silura i nizhnem devone SSSR morskikh lilii sem. Crotalocrinitidae [On the existence in the Upper Silurian and Lower Devonian of the USSR of the Crotalocrinacea crinoids]. Ezhegodnik Vserossijskogo Paleontologicheskogo Obshchestva, 13, 14–19.
Zhivkovich, A. E. & Chekhovich, P. A. 1985. Paleozoiskie formatsii i tektonika Ufimskogo amfiteatra [Palaeozoic Formations and Tectonics of the Ufimian Amphitheatre]. Nauka, Moscow, 184 pp.