The Echinoid Directory

Cyclaster Cotteau, in Leymerie & Cotteau, 1856, p. 345

[=Brissopneustes Cotteau, 1887, type species Brissopneustes vilanovae Cotteau, 1887; =Isopneustes Seunnes, 1888, p. 795, non Pomel, 1883; =Palmeraster Sanchez Roig, 1949, p. 268, type species
Palmeraster palmeri Sanchez Roig, 1949 ]

Diagnostic Features	Test ovate, with faint frontal sulcus at ambitus; low domal in profile. Apical disc ethmophract, with 3 gonopores (no gonopore in genital plate 2). Frontal ambulacrum sunken adapically, with small, differentiated pore-pairs. Other ambulacra forming short, straight, weakly sunken petals aborally; petals extending only about half of the radial distance to the ambitus in plan view. Periproct towards top of vertically truncate posterior face. Peristome kidney-shaped and partially hidden by labral plate in oral view. Labral plate longitudinally elongate; sternal plates triangular. No narrowing of plastron width to rear of the episternals. Paired interambulacra amphisternous. No primary tubercles differentiated. Aboral tuberces small and uniform and set in groundmass of fine granules. Well-developed bilobed subanal fasciole crossing Ia plates 5.a.3-5.b.3 on its oral side. Peripetalous fasciole variably developed. May be complete, partial or altogether absent. In type species it is present from the paired anterior petals to the posterior but not anteriorly.
Distribution	Upper Cretaceous (Campanian-Maastrichtian) to Recent, worldwide.
Name gender	masculine
Type	Cyclaster declivus Cotteau, in Leymerie & Cotteau, 1856, p. 345, by original designation.
Species Included	C. recens Mortensen, 1950; Recent West Pacific. C. regalis Baker, 1969; Recent, New Zealand. C. declivus Cotteau, 1856; Eocene, France. C. aturicus (Seunes, 1888); Danian, Pyrenees, Ukraine. C. gindrei (Seunes, 1888); Maastrichtian - Danian, Pyrenees, Spain, Ukraine, Kazakstan. C. lucentinus Cotteau, 1890; Eocene, Spain. C. ovalis Cotteau, 1887; Eocene, France. C. vilanovae (Cotteau, 1886); Danian, Spain, Turkey. C. heberti (Nickles, 1892); Maastrichtian, Spain. C. integer (Seunes, 1888); Maastrichtian-Danian, Pyrenees, Ukraine, Kazakstan, Georgia, Madagascar, Denmark. C. pfenderae Lambert, 1936; Maastrichtian-Danian, Madagascar. C. platornatus Kutscher, 1978; Maastrichtian, Germany, Belgium. C. suecicus (Schluter, 1897); Danian, Sweden, Denmark. C. galei Jeffery, 1997; Maastrichtian, Kazakstan. C. drewryensis Cooke, 1942; Late Eocene, Cuba, Early Oligocene, Alabama, USA. C. sanchezi Lambert, in Sanchez Roig, 1926; Late Eocene, Cuba. C. archeri (Tenison Woods, 1867); Late Oligocene to Early Miocene, Australia. C. posita (Hutton, 1873); Oligocene - Lower Miocene, New Zealand. Plus others....
Classification and/or Status	Spatangoida, Micrasterina, Micrasteridae, Cyclasterinae. Presumed monophyletic.
Remarks	The development of the peripetalous fasciole and degree to which the frontal ambulacrum is depressed at the ambitus is variable and does not provide a reliable means of subdividing this group. Cyclaster differs from Micraster in having three gonopores, and from Isaster in having pores of the frontal ambulacrum differentiated from those in the paired petals. The living species C. regalis Baker (1969) lives in sandy mud at depths of between 300 and 500 m. Leymerie, A. & Cotteau, G. Catalogue des échinides fossiles des Pyrénées. Bulletin de la Société géologique de France, (2) 13, 319-355. Baker, A.N. 1969. Two new heart-urchins, including a new species of Cyclaster, from New Zealand waters (Echinoidea, Spatangoida). Records of the Dominion Museum 6(16), 265-273. Mortensen, T. 1950. A monograph of the Echinoidea: Volume 5, Spatangoida 1. C.A. Reitzel, Copenhagen. Jeffery, C. H. 1998. Carrying on regardless: the echinoids genus Cyclaster at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary. Lethaia 31, 149-157. Jagt, J.W.M. & Michels, G.P.H. 1990. Additional note on the genus Cyclaster from the Late Maastrichtian of northeastern Belgium. Geologie en Mijnbouw 69, 179-185. McNamara, K. J., Philip, G. M. & Kruse, P. D. 1986. Tertiary brissid echinoids of southern Australia. Alcheringa 10, 55-84.