Pentremites

Pentremites; Temporal range: Early Carboniferous PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
	Pentremites godoni from the Lower Carboniferous of Illinois.
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Echinodermata
Class:	Blastoidea
Order:	Spiraculata
Family:	Pentremitidae
Genus:	Pentremites
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.^[1]

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.^[2]

Pentremites species lived in the early to middle Carboniferous, from 360.7 to 314.6 Ma. Its fossils are known from North America.^[1]

References

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

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[fa-1] The Paleobiology Database

[2] Museum of Victoria

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