Pentremites

Pentremites Temporal range:
Pentremites godoni from the Lower Carboniferous of Illinois.
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Echinodermata
Class:	Blastoidea
Order:	Spiraculata
Family:	Pentremitidae
Genus:	Pentremites Say, 1820
Species
Pentremites aridus Webster and Lane 1970 Pentremites conoideus Hall 1856 Pentremites cristalensis Macurder 1964 Pentremites elongatus Shumard 1855 Pentremites godoni Pentremites kirki Hambach 1903 Pentremites pentremites Hernon 1935 Pentremites pyriformis Pentremites rusticus Hambach 1903 Pentremites sulcatus Roemer 1851

Pentremites is an extinct genus of blastoid echinoderm belonging to the family Pentremitidae.

Description

These stalked echinoderms averaged a height of about 11 centimetres (4.3 in) but occasionally ranged up to about 3 times that size. They, like other blastoids, superficially resemble their distant relatives, the crinoids or sea lilies, having a near-identical, planktivorous lifestyle living on the sea floor attached by a stalk. As with all other blastoids, species of Pentremites trapped food floating in the currents by means of tentacle-like appendages.

Pentremites species lived in the early to middle Carboniferous, from 360.7 to 314.6 Ma. Its fossils are known from North America.

References

• Fossils (Smithsonian Handbooks) by David Ward (Page 190)