Article: Two Carboniferous blastoids from Scotland

The two fissiculate blastoids, Astrocrinus tetragonus (Austin and Austin, 1843) and Hadroblastus(?) benniei (Etheridge and Carpenter, 1886), occur together in Early Carboniferous Visean (D) sediments of Scotland. Astrocrinus is a small, free-living eleutherozoic blastoid characterized by well-developed surface ornament. The nodes are interpreted as spine bases which, together with some brachioles, probably stabilized the animal on its substrate in periods of higher energy. H.(?) benniei, a stemmed blastoid formerly identified as Phaenoschisma? benniei, extends the known geographic range of Hadroblastus from North America to the British Isles, and the stratigraphic range into the Upper Visean, if the species assignment is correct.