The Echinoid Directory

Contributed by Andrew Smith, April 2007

Somalechinus Checchia-Rispoli, 1945, p. 85

Diagnostic Features	Based on rather crushed unique individual. Flat base and tall subconical profile (length 15 mm, width 17mm, height 14 mm); with frontal groove in plan view. Apical disc displaced towards the anterior, slightly depressed; with 4 gonopores; ethmophract with the madreporic plate slightly larger. Anterior sulcus distinct and deep and continuing on oral surface to the peristome. Paired petals short and heterogenous. The anterior pair transverse, strongly sunken; the posterior pair much shorter and superficial. Pore zones separated by an interporal zone about the same width as a pore-pair; one pore circular the other slightly oval. Periproct at top of posterior face; ovoid. Peristome and oral surface not preserved. Tuberculation fine and uniform. No fascioles reported.
Distribution	Cenomanian, Upper Cretaceous, Hill near Jesomma, 6 km from the Lamma Bridge, Somalia
Name gender	masculine
Type	Somalechinus gibbus Checchia-Rispoli, 1945, p. 85, by original designation.
Species Included	Only the type species
Classification and/or Status	Irregularia; Spatangoida; Incertae sedis
Remarks	Too poorly preserved to be sure of its taxonomic placement. The ethmophract apical disc suggests Toxasteridae or (more likely) Micrasteridae. Checchia-Rispoli, G. 1945 Di due nouvi generi di Echinidi del Cretaceo dell Somalia. Bolletino de R. Ufficio Geologico d'Italia 68 (for 1943): 81-90, pls 1-2.