Crinoids, a blastoid and a cyclocysoid from the Upper Devonian Reef complex of the Canning Basin, Western Australia

This first systematic treatment of echinoderms from the extensive Upper Devonian reef complex of the northern Canning Basin erects the Frasnian blastoid Hyperoblastus buglensis sp. nov. and crinoids Codiacrinus nicolli sp. nov., Melocrinites solidus sp. nov. and Hexacrinites brownlawi sp. nov. and the Famennian crinoids Jaekelicrinus murrayi sp. nov., Playfordicrinus kellyensis gen. et sp. nov., Wacrinus caseyensis gen. et sp. nov. and W. millardensis gen. et sp. nov., with J. murrayi first appearing at the very top of the Frasnian. These echinoderms which have affinities with Siberian and European faunas occur mainly in the fine, red, fore reef Virgin Hills Formation with numerous holdfasts (some directly onto algal mounds) suggesting they lived in this environment. While much disaggregated crinoidal material is found in the cleaner reefal limestones the only cup found is Stylocrinus tabulatus Goldfuss, 1839 in Frasnian fore reef talus slope Sadler Limestone in the Paddy’s Valley area. In the same insoluble residue was a marginal cyclocystoid plate, the youngest record of the class.