The Echinoid Directory

Pygospatangus Cotteau, 1890, p. 17

Diagnostic Features	Test ovate and thick-shelled, with convex anterior; posterior rounded. Test domed in profile with flat base. Apical disc a little anterior of centre; preservation too poor to make out any details. Ambulacra all flush aborally. Frontal ambulacrum narrow; plates pentagonal and pore-pairs microscopic; paired ambulacra petaloid; petals straight, extending most of the distance to the ambitus and with narrow interporal zone; open distally. Perradial zone about same width as a pore-pair. Peristome poorly preserved but probably lunate; labrum and plastron plating unknown, but ambulacral plates do not indent the posterior interambulacrum. Episternal plates 3a,b offset. Periproct inframarginal, occupying most of short, undercut posterior face; bordered by interambulacral plates 4a,b. Bounded by five plates on either side. No tuberculation preserved.
Distribution	Originally reported to be from the Eocene of Alicante Province, Spain. However the same species occurs in Oligocene aged rocks near Alicante, where it has been collected together with Echinolampas vidali, Cyclaster azemati, Cyclaster sp. and Pericosmus hispanicus (Carlos Garcia, personal communication).
Name gender	masculine
Type	Pygospatangus salvae Cotteau, 1890, p. 17, by original designation. Holotype, Museum National d\'Histoire Naturelle, Paris R62327.
Species Included	Only the type species.
Classification and/or Status	Spatangoida, Paleopneustina, incertae sedis B Monotypic; Like Heterobrissus Manzoni & Mazzetti, 1877, but too poorly known to unite at present.
Remarks	Like Heterobrissus Manzoni & Mazzetti, 1877, but much thicker tested. Differs from Antillaster in having shorter petals and an inframarginal periproct. Close to Archaeopneustes in periproct position and aboral appearance, but oral surface poorly known. The type species is too poorly preserved to reveal its plate architecture and so the true affinities of this taxon cannot be determined.