Ordovician Paracrinoids from the Baltic: Key Problems of Comparative Morphology of Pelmatozoan Echinoderms

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The erect feeding appendages of paracrinoids, brachioles of typical blastozoans and arms of crinoids are morphologically similar in their terminal growth, biserial cover plates, and pinnulation. This is attributed to the inducing effect of the radial ambulacral canal on their growth mode. The uniserial brachioles of Laurentian paracrinoids are homologous to the biserial brachioles of the Baltic Achradocystites and Heckerites, and those of other blastozoans. Based on this assumption, the two Baltic genera, which have a brachiole system plesiomorphic for paracrinoids, and a similar morphology of the theca, are assigned to this class. Brachiolars in brachioles are a new development, homologous to the flooring plates of the food groove and, where present, are the continuations of these plates beyond the theca. The uniserial brachioles of Laurentian paracrinoids evolved from the biserial brachioles as a result of a gradual shift of brachiolars in the neighboring rows and their subsequent fusion in pairs. Brachials in crinoidal arms are a new development that evolved as distal serial growth of radial plates under the induced influence of the incipient radial canals emerging from the closed vestibular cavity, which was an ontogenetic innovation in crinoids. The transformation of a nonorganized small-plated theca into a large-plated, and completely or partly symmetrized theca, or vice versa is possible and results from accelerated or retarded growth of some plate generation in relation to the growth rate of the theca.