Lower Miocene echinoderms of Jamaica, West Indies

Despite being diverse globally, Miocene echinoids are poorly known from Jamaica. Moderately diverse echinoids and other echinoderms have been identified mainly from fragmentary specimens collected from chalks and mass-flow deposits of the Lower Miocene Montpelier Formation, White Limestone Group, near Duncans, parish of Trelawny. This locality has yielded the most diverse association of fossil echinoderms known from the Miocene of Jamaica, including at least ten species in four classes. This fauna is comprised of the isocrinid crinoids Neocrinus sp. cf. N. decorus (Wyville Thomson) and Isocrinus sp.; the ophiuroid Ophiomusium? sp.; the asteroids Astropecten? spp.; and the echinoids Prionocidaris? sp., Histocidaris sp., Echinometra sp. cf. E. lucunter (Linné), Echinoneus cyclostomus Leske, Clypeaster? sp. and spatangoid sp. Some echinoids are preserved as “crystal apples”. The deep water echinoderm taxa in this death assemblage suggest the depth of deposition to have been at least 200 m. At the level of genus, the echinoids of Duncans Quarry show strong similarities with coeval associations from Anguilla and Puerto Rico, although no consistent biostratigraphic marker(s) emerge from this comparison.