English

Wikispecies

Noun

marsupite ‎(plural marsupites)

1. (paleontology) A fossil crinoid of the genus Marsupites, resembling a purse.
   • 1839, Gideon Algernon Mantell, The Wonders of Geology, Volume 1, page 309,

     The most remarkable fossil of this class is the marsupite, which I have thus named from its resemblance, when closed, to a purse. The marsupite (Tab. 51) was a molluscous animal, of a sub-ovate form, having the mouth, which was surrounded by arms, or tentacula, in the centre.

   • 1839, Rosina Maria Zornlin, Recreations in Geology, page 84,

     The crinoideans are sparingly distributed in the cretaceous group; the most remarkable is the marsupite, which appears to have been an unattached crinoidean.

   • 1843, J. Chaning Pearce, On an entirely new form of Encrinite from the Dudley Limestone, The Annals and Magazine of Natural History, Zoology, Botany and Geology, Volume 12, page 472,

     The plates of the head are thin and broad, and marked on their outer surface by lines of growth, and radiating ridges resembling the plates of the marsupite.