The Echinoid Directory

Asterobrissus de Loriol, 1888, p. 104

[=Trochalia Pomel, 1883, p. 60, non Trochalia Sharpe, 1850 ]

Diagnostic Features	Test small, highly inflated, greatest width posterior to centre, greatest height anterior to centre. Apical system anterior, tetrabasal, with four genital pores. Petals of equal length, with outer pore-pair more elongate than inner, all ambulacral plates with double pores. Periproct supramarginal, bordering on marginal, on an almost vertical face, with a short groove extending from lower edge of periproct opening to posterior margin of test. Peristome anterior, subpentagonal, equant. Bourrelets absent. Phyllodes slightly broadened, with two series of double pores in each half-ambulacrum. No buccal pores.
Distribution	Lower Cretaceous (Valanginian-Aptian), Europe.
Name gender	masculine
Type	Nucleolites requieni Desor in Agassiz & Desor, 1847, p. 154; by subsequent designation of Kier, 1962, p. 78.
Species Included	Phyllobrissus [Asterobrissus] requieni (Desor in Agassiz & Desor, 1847); Urgonian, France. Phyllobrissus [Asterobrissus] fourtaui (Lambert in Demoly, 1913); Upper Valanginian, France. Lambert & Thiery (1909-1925) list 4 species within this genus.
Classification and/or Status	Irregularia; Neognathostomata; 'nucleolitid'. Replacement name for Trochalia Pomel, 1883 non Sharpe (a mollusc). Subjective junior synonym of Phyllobrissus Cotteau, 1859.
Remarks	Kier (1962, p. 78) stated that Asterobrissus fourtaui Lambert, in Demoly, 1913, has been incorrectly designated the type species. This is because this species was not included among those referred to Trochalia in Pomel\'s original description of the genus, or in de Loriol\'s later description of Asterobrissus. Kier (1962, p. 78) therefore designated Echinobrissus requieni Desor in Agassiz & Desor, 1847 as the type species. Kier (1962, p. 78) considers Asterobrissus to be a subjective junior synonym of Phyllobrissus as the type species are very similar. Both have a similar petal arrangement, a tetrabasal apical system, supramarginal periproct that is close to the margin, and double-pored phyllodes with no buccal pores. He points out that Asterobrissus differs mainly in shape, being almost square in marginal outline, but believes that this difference is not of sufficient importance to warrant generic distinction. P. M. Kier. 1962. Revision of the cassiduloid echinoids. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 144 (3) 262 pp. J. Lambert & P. Thiery. 1909-1925. Essai de nomenclature raisonnee des echinides. Libraire Septime Ferriere, Chaumont, 607 pp., 15 pls.