gen. et sp. nov., a first nearly complete feather star (Crinoidea) from the Upper Jurassic of Africa.

Fossil comatulids, referred to as feather stars, are mostly known from highly disarticulated specimens. A single isolated element (centrodorsal) has been the basis for taxonomic description of a vast majority of fossil comatulids. Here, we report a nearly complete, and thus extremely rare, comatulid from the Upper Jurassic (Tithonian) of the Blue Nile Basin in central western Ethiopia that provides a unique insight into the morphology of comatulid arms and cirri.

Substrate type and palaeodepth do not affect the Middle Jurassic taxonomic diversity of crinoids.

Crinoids are largely considered as good indicators for determining environmental conditions. They are robust proxies for inferring changes in salinity and sedimentation rate and for inferring substrate type. Some crinoid groups (.