The Echinoid Directory

Gitolampopsis Checchia-Rispoli, 1921, p. 18

Diagnostic Features	Test of medium size, ovate to subpentagonal in outline, inflated, with a pointed posterior margin, adoral surface flat, slightly sunken towards the peristome. Apical system monobasal, anterior, with four genital pores. Petals well developed, broad, tapering slightly distally but remaining open, with broad interporiferous zones, poriferous zones of equal length in the same petal. Pores conjugate, outer pores elongate, ambulacral plates beyond petals with single pores. Peristome anterior, subpentagonal, wider than long; vertical-walled entrance. Periproct marginal, subtriangular. Bourrelets feebly developed, dense tuberculation confined to vertical walled entrance to peristome. Phyllodes broad, single pored, with two or three series of pores in each half-ambulacrum. Buccal pores present.
Distribution	Upper Cretaceous (Senonian) of Italy.
Name gender	feminine
Type	Gitolampas lamberti Checchia-Rispoli, 1921, p. 18; by subsequent designation of Kier, 1962, p. 212.
Species Included	Gitolampas (Gitolampopsis) lamberti Checchia-Rispoli, 1921; Senonian, Italy. Gitolampas (Gitolampopsis) zuffardii Checchia-Rispoli, 1921; Senonian, Italy.
Classification and/or Status	Irregularia; Cassiduloida; \'Gitolampadids\' Subjective junior synonym of Gitolampas Gauthier, 1889.
Remarks	Checchia-Rispoli (1921) erected this subgenus for his species G. lamberti and G. zuffardii, differentiating them from the type species of Gitolampas (G. tunetana) by their more inflated tests and more dorsally situated periprocts. Both Mortensen (1948, p. 250) and Kier (1962, p. 212) state that such characters are insufficient to warrant even subgeneric distinction, particularly as the periproct is no more dorsal in G. (Gitolampopsis) lamerti than in G. tunetana. Checchia Rispoli, G. 1921. Fauna del Neocretacico della Tripolitania. Echinidi. Mem. R. Com. geol. It. 8 (2), 3-31. T. Mortensen. 1948. A monograph of the Echinoidea: 4 (1): Holectypoida, Cassiduloida. C. A. Reitzel, Copenhagen, 363 pp., 14 pls. P. M. Kier. 1962. Revision of the cassiduloid echinoids. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 144, (3), 262 pp.