Camerata

(paleontology) A subclass of extinct stalked echinoderms of the class Crinoidea.

An extinct subclass of stalked Crinoidea comprising about 210 Paleozoic genera ranging from the Lower Ordovician to the upper Permian. The calyx was composed of a rigid, boxlike structure of many small, polygonal plates. The lower arm plates (brachials) were solidly incorporated into the upper part of the calyx, and were separated by small interbrachial and interradial plates. The tegmen was rigid and roofed over the mouth and proximal food grooves. Advanced forms had a long, slender, solid anal tube with the anal opening at the tip. All but a few primitive Ordovician forms had biserial arms, and the arms bore pinnules.

Both dicyclic forms with infrabasal plates (order Diplobathrida; 50 genera) and monocyclic forms without infrabasals (order Monobathrida; 160 genera) are known. The former became extinct during middle Mississippian time, the latter persisted to the close of the Paleozoic Era and flourished during Mississippian time. The origin of the Camerata is obscure but presumably occurred during Cambrian or earliest Ordovician time. Camerates are not closely related to the other two large subclasses of Paleozoic crinoids, the flexibles and the inadunates. See also Crinoidea; Echinodermata.