Paracomatula triadicasp. nov. from the Late Triassic (Otapirian, upper Norian) Bouraké Formation of New Caledonia is the earliest known feather star. Its primitive characters (short arms, branching only once isotomously, long cylindrical cirrals and tall brachials) suggest that the paracomatulids are a Late Triassic offshoot of the holocrinids rather than the more specialized pentacrinitids. The paracomatulids appear for the first time after the mid Carnian extinction. Their eleutherozoic life style was to become the most successful strategy among modern articulate crinoids.