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Geological Society, London, Special Publications; 1979; v. 8; p. 453-456;
DOI: 10.1144/GSL.SP.1979.008.01.53
© 1979 Geological Society of London

5. Floras and Faunas

Caledonian echinoderms of the British Isles

C. R. C. Paul

Department of Geology, University of Liverpool

The Lower Palaeozoic echinoderm fauna of the British Isles is meagre in the Cambrian, but much more diverse in the Ordovician and Silurian. A change from blastozoanto crinozoan-dominated faunas is probably a real evolutionary change, but is largely due to the exceedingly rich Ashgill cystoid fauna and the equally varied Wenlock Limestone crinoids. Changes in the echinoderm fauna from the early Ordovician to the Silurian imply that provincialism gave way to cosmopolitanism; a cooler climate became subtropical, despite the Upper Ordovician glaciation; and that crinoids replaced blastozoans because they were more efficient filter-feeders.