The Echinoid Directory

Saviniaster Lambert, 1911, p. 193 (33)

Diagnostic Features	Test ovate with rounded anterior; posterior face truncate. Apical disc ethmolytic with four gonopores; anterior of centre. Ambulacra flush. Ambulacrum III narrow with microscopic pores. Other ambulacra subpetaloid and narrow. Peristome D-shaped and facing obliquely forwards. Plastron plating not known; labral plate appears to be small. Periproct on posterior truncate face. Peripetalous fasciole present, passing inframarginally around the anterior. Other fascioles not reported in type (presumably not preserved).
Distribution	Eocene, France; Recent, Caribbean.
Name gender	masculine
Type	Saviniaster migueli Lambert, 1911, p. 33; by original designation. Holotype: Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, J01175.
Species Included	S. migueli Lambert, 1911; Eocene, France. S. enodatus Chesher, 1968; Recent Caribbean.
Classification and/or Status	Spatangoida, Paleopneustina, Prenasteridae. Monotypic; subjective junior synonym of Prenaster Desor, 1853.
Remarks	Lambert, in erecting this species, allied it with corasterids. He recognized a marginal fasciole, but presumably poor preservation has obliterated the posterior part of the peripetalous fasciole. The type material needs restudy. Chesher (1968) described a new living species that he assigned to this species. It is very similar to Prenaster, differing only in having subpetaloid rather than petaloid ambulacra. Lambert, J. 1911. Notes sur quelques Echinides Eoceniques des Corbieres Septentrionales. Annales de la Universite Lyon, series 1, 30, 165-199, pl. 26 Chesher, R. H. 1968. The systematics of sympatric species in West Indian spatangoids. Studies in Tropical Oceanography 7, 1-168, pls 1-35.