Data from: Batocrinidae (Crinoidea) from the lower Mississippian (lower Viséan) Fort Payne Formation of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama: systematics, geographic occurrences, and facies distribution

The Batocrinidae are characteristic faunal elements in lower Mississippian
shallow-marine settings in North America. Recent delineation of
objectively defined genera allows a reexamination of batocrinid species
and their distribution in the Fort Payne Formation (early Viséan, late
Osagean), a well-studied array of carbonate and siliciclastic facies. The
Fort Payne batocrinid fauna has fourteen species assigned to six genera,
plus hybrid specimens. Magnuscrinus spinosus (Miller and Gurley, 1895a) is
reassigned to its original placement in Eretmocrinus. Hybrid specimens
(Ausich and Meyer, 1994) are regarded as Eretmocrinus magnificus X
Eretmocrinus spinosus. Macrocrinus casualis is the dominant species of
Macrocrinus in the Fort Payne, and M. mundulus and M. strotobasilaris are
recognized in the Fort Payne Formation for the first time. Magnuscrinus
cumberlandensis n. sp. is named, thirteen species are designated as junior
synonyms, the name for the hybrid specimens is changed to Eretmocrinus
magnificus × Eretmocrinus spinosus, and the previous occurrences of two
species in the Fort Payne are rejected. The Eastern Interior Seaway was a
mixed carbonate-siliciclastic setting with both shallow- and deep-water
epicontinental sea facies ranging from relatively shallow autochthonous
green shales to deep-water turbidite facies. Dizygocrinus was restricted
to shallow-water carbonate and siliciclastic facies, Eutrochocrinus was
restricted to shallow-water carbonate facies, and Magnuscrinus was
restricted to deep-water facies. Species distributions varied from
Abatocrinus steropes, Alloprosallocrinus conicus, Macrocrinus mundulus,
and Uperocrinus nashvillae that occurred throughout the Eastern Interior
Seaway to species that were restricted to a single facies. Eretmocrinus
magnificus, Alloprosallocrinus conicus, and Uperocrinus robustus were the
dominant batocrinids in the Fort Payne Formation.