The Echinoid Directory

Contributed by Jenna Sullivan, May 2007

Oviclypeus Dames, 1877, p. 44

Diagnostic Features	Large, distingtly elongated form with thick test; aboral side conical; lower surface flat and sunken towards peristome. Apical system slightly anterior; monobsal? with four genital pores (gonopore 5 missing). Ambulacra petaloid aborally, with broad poriferous zones, not, or at most slightly, converging towards the edge of the test. The pores are wide apart, conjugate; the inner pore is small, circular, the outer elongate. On the oral side the pores continue in a single series to the peristome. Ambulacral plates are simple. Structure of phyllodes unknown, but likely to be "pseudophyllodes". Adorally the interambulacra form conspicuous bourrelets. Periproct submarginal, triangular to longitudinally oval. Peristome central, more or less transversely elongate. Lantern unknown. Numerous perforate, crenulate primary tubercles which are slightly sunken. No naked areas.
Distribution	Eocene, Italy and Slovenia
Name gender	masculine
Type	Oviclypeus lorioli Dames, 1877, p. 45, by monotypy.
Species Included	O. lorioli Dames, 1877; Eocene, San Giovanni Ilarione, Italy.
Classification and/or Status	Irregularia; stem group Clypeasteroida; Conoclypidae. Junior subjective synonym of Conoclypus.
Remarks	There is little that distinguishes this taxon from Conoclypus, apart from its characteristic elongated form, which is interpreted as species-specific character here. [Comment provided by Andreas Kroh 02/2010] Dames, W. 1877 (November). Die Echiniden des Vicentinischen und Veronesischen Tertiaerablangerungen. Palaeontographica 25, 1-100, pls 1-11.