Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 May 2016
Plicodendrocrinus n. gen. is erected for dendrocrinids with solid pentalobate columns, strong stellate ridges on the aboral cup plates, and highly plicate anal sac plates. Five species are assigned: Middle Ordovician; P. proboscidiatus (E. Billings, not W. R. Billings) n. comb., from the Trenton of Canada and the Dunleith of Iowa and Minnesota. Upper Ordovician; P. casei (Meek) n. comb., from the Richmond and Gamachian of the midcontinent; P. rugocyathus (Ramsbottom) n. comb., from the Ashgill of England; P. collapsus (Donovan) n. comb.; and P. granditubus (Ramsbottom) n. comb., from the Ashgill of Scotland.
The Middle Ordovician dendrocrinids from the Dunleith Formation (Trentonian) of northern Iowa and southern Minnesota are P. proboscidiatus (E. Billings), Dendrocrinus acutidactylus E. Billings, and Quienquecaudex springeri (Kolata). All species are also known from the Middle Ordovician of Ontario and Quebec. In addition, O. springeri (Kolata) is recorded from the Platteville Group of Illinois. Biogeographically, the Dunleith dendrocrinids are most similar to those of the northern Appalachians.
Plicodendrocrinus casei (Meek) ranges widely in the midcontinent and has been obtained from the Maysvillian and Richmondian Maquoketa Formation of Iowa and Minnesota, several Richmondian units in the Cincinnati area, and the Gamachian Girardeau Limestone of Illinois and Missouri.
A quantitative cladistic analysis of Ordovician cladid and flexible crinoids produces five groups: primitive forms including Aethocrinus, Compagicrinus, Ottawacrinus, and Grenprisia; cyathocrinids with Carabocrinus, Palaeocrinus, Illemocrinus, and Porocrinus; merocrinids with Archaetaxocrinus, Merocrinus, Praecupulocrinus, Polycrinus, and Aithriocrinus; dendrocrinids with Esthonocrinus, Eoparisocrinus, Dendrocrinus, Quienquecaudex, Plicodendrocrinus and perhaps Eopinnacrinus; and Cupulocrinus and the flexibles, Protaxocrinus, Clidochirus, and Proanisocrinus. These groups are not consistent with the present taxonomy and several suggestions for restructuring are presented, notably grouping flexibles with cladids and adjusting the taxonomic level of cyathocrinids. The cladograms for early cladids and flexibles are poorly correlated with stratigraphic position because of numerous unfilled range zones for the taxa or their ancestors. Thus, the cladograms generate predictions that can be tested by later finds in the Lower and the lower part of the Middle Ordovician. The overall evolutionary trends are highly mosaic with numerous parallelisms and reversals.