114
R. K. DELL
were easily identified in the bottom photographs. Ophiurolepis was
also crawling over bryozoan colonies in company with Amphiura
belgicae. Ophiurolepis also occurs quite commonly on soft bottom
sediments.
I n a series of photographs, Fell recognized Ophioceres incipiens
Koehler by means of a number of characters and realized that this
species ‘‘ fished ” the water for falling particles of food by attaching
itself by two arms to tube worms, colonial hydroids or sponges and
spreading the other three into the water.
The female ophiuroid Astrochlamys bruneus Koehler has the habit
of carrying dwarf males on her back (Mortensen, 1937). Fell (1961)
recorded two small males clinging to the dorsal surface of a female.
4. Crinoidea
Dearborn and Rommel (1969) summarized knowledge of the group
in the Antarctic. Of the 23 families of living crinoids, only two, the
Notocrinidae and the Antedonidae occur on the Antarctic Shelf and
the shelves of the outlying islands of South Georgia, Bouvet, Heard,
Kerguelen, Prince Edward, the Crozets and Gough Island. One family,
the Notocrinidae, having a peculiarly modified reproductive system, is
endemic to this area. The crinoids of this shelf area are all comatulids.
In abyssal depths contiguous to the Antarctic and Subantarctic additional families such as the Bathycrinidae, Hyocrinidae, Thalassometridae and Pentametrocrinidae occur. Four species of stalked crinoids are
known from the area considered Antarctic in the present study. Bathycrinus australis A. H. Clark ranges from 2 514 to 4 636 m. The other
three species belong to the family Hyocrinidae. Ptilocrinus brucei
Vaney has been collected between 3 245 and 4 973 m, P. antarcticus
Bather from about 480 m, and Hyocrinus bethelzianus Wyville Thomaon
known from 2 926 to 4 636 m.
As with some other echinoderm groups, e.g. the holothurians, a vast
amount of recently collected material which is still being studied is not
yet available for distributional records, Only five species are as yet
recorded from 10 or more occurrences. Many are known from only L few
specimens and because of their delicate nature even these may be in bad
condition.
The peculiar family Notocrinidae contains only two known species,
Notocrinus mortenseni John (known from depths from 194 to 603 m) and
N . virilis Mortensen (from 163 to 649 m). I n this genus, and hence in
the family, the gonads are found in the axils between the pinnules and
the arms (a unique position in crinoids), with the testes about twice the
R. K. DELL
were easily identified in the bottom photographs. Ophiurolepis was
also crawling over bryozoan colonies in company with Amphiura
belgicae. Ophiurolepis also occurs quite commonly on soft bottom
sediments.
I n a series of photographs, Fell recognized Ophioceres incipiens
Koehler by means of a number of characters and realized that this
species ‘‘ fished ” the water for falling particles of food by attaching
itself by two arms to tube worms, colonial hydroids or sponges and
spreading the other three into the water.
The female ophiuroid Astrochlamys bruneus Koehler has the habit
of carrying dwarf males on her back (Mortensen, 1937). Fell (1961)
recorded two small males clinging to the dorsal surface of a female.
4. Crinoidea
Dearborn and Rommel (1969) summarized knowledge of the group
in the Antarctic. Of the 23 families of living crinoids, only two, the
Notocrinidae and the Antedonidae occur on the Antarctic Shelf and
the shelves of the outlying islands of South Georgia, Bouvet, Heard,
Kerguelen, Prince Edward, the Crozets and Gough Island. One family,
the Notocrinidae, having a peculiarly modified reproductive system, is
endemic to this area. The crinoids of this shelf area are all comatulids.
In abyssal depths contiguous to the Antarctic and Subantarctic additional families such as the Bathycrinidae, Hyocrinidae, Thalassometridae and Pentametrocrinidae occur. Four species of stalked crinoids are
known from the area considered Antarctic in the present study. Bathycrinus australis A. H. Clark ranges from 2 514 to 4 636 m. The other
three species belong to the family Hyocrinidae. Ptilocrinus brucei
Vaney has been collected between 3 245 and 4 973 m, P. antarcticus
Bather from about 480 m, and Hyocrinus bethelzianus Wyville Thomaon
known from 2 926 to 4 636 m.
As with some other echinoderm groups, e.g. the holothurians, a vast
amount of recently collected material which is still being studied is not
yet available for distributional records, Only five species are as yet
recorded from 10 or more occurrences. Many are known from only L few
specimens and because of their delicate nature even these may be in bad
condition.
The peculiar family Notocrinidae contains only two known species,
Notocrinus mortenseni John (known from depths from 194 to 603 m) and
N . virilis Mortensen (from 163 to 649 m). I n this genus, and hence in
the family, the gonads are found in the axils between the pinnules and
the arms (a unique position in crinoids), with the testes about twice the