THE LOST LEGACY OF JAMES PARKINSON’S WORK ON THE CRINOIDEA (ECHINODERMATA)

ABSTRACT

James Parkinson (1755–1824) was a late 18^th and early 19^th century apothecary surgeon. In addition to medicine, he published on other topics such as radical politics and paleontology. His paleontological monographs were important during the transitional period when fossils came to be regarded as the remains of once living organisms and were disentangled from Biblical explanations of their origins and distribution. Parkinson published on plants, invertebrates, and vertebrate fossils. Although his work on crinoids was regarded as significant during the 19^th century, it has largely been forgotten in the 21^st century. Parkinson's observations led him to interpret crinoids as animals, which was reflected in his morphological terminology, and he expanded crinoid classification beyond that based solely on columnals and pluricolumnals. However, Parkinson's morphological terminology, like that of many 19^th century students of crinoids, did not reflect homology; and he did not apply a Linnean crinoid taxonomy. Despite what is now regarded as inadequate morphological terminology and an obsolete classification scheme, James Parkinson's significant contributions to the study of crinoids should not be forgotten.