A NEW SPECIES OF STALKED CRINOID (ECHINODERMATA) OF POSSIBLE LATE SILURIAN AGE FROM CENTRAL NEWFOUNDLAND

A new fossil locality within a sequence previously assigned to the Mid dle Ordovician Bale D'Espoir Group in south-central Newfoundland conta ins fragmented crinoid columnals and brachiopods. Distinctive, pentast ellate crinoid columnals, similar to those assigned to the monobathrid camerate Hexacrinites Austin and Austin by Russian authors, are named Hexacrinites? pentastellatus n. sp. Nodal(?) columnals of this specie s have a circular, depressed articular facet, with a conical to bowl-l ike crenularium, a depressed, circular areola, a raised perilumen and a short, slender axial canal of pentagonal section. The oldest Hexacri nites sensu stricto are Late Silurian, suggesting that the fossilifero us strata have been incorrectly assigned to the Ordovician. Cross-sect ions of brachiopods from the same locality include an example that res embles several Early Silurian to Late Devonian pentameroid genera incl uding Brooksina Kirk, 1922. Correlation with Late Silurian, bivalve-be aring strata 50 km to the northeast would indicate that a major unconf ormity may occur above the fossiliferous Early and Middle Ordovician s trata and the Early Ordovician ophiolte complexes.