The Echinoid Directory

Merolampas Pomel, 1883, p. 63

Diagnostic Features	Test of moderate size, ovate in outline, slightly sunken towards peristome. Apical disc anterior; monobasal, with four gonopores. Petals well developed; bowed and open distally. Pore-pairs small, subconjugate; the inner pores round, the outer pores elongated transversely. The two columns of pore-pairs in each petal highly asymmetric, being of very unequal lengths. Peristome subcentral, transverse, subtriangular, wider than long. Periproct inframarginal, subtriangular and transverse, not sunken. Phyllode structure unknown. Bourrelets absent. Buccal pores present.
Distribution	Eocene (Lutetian-Priabonian) of Austria and Egypt.
Name gender	feminine
Type	Echinolampas mattseeensis Quenstedt, 1875, p. 489; by subsequent designation of Lambert, 1918, p. 44.
Species Included	Pomel (1883) included the following species when erecting this genus: E. mattseeensis (Quenstedt, 1875); Lutetian, Austria E. crameri (de Loriol 1880); Lutetian-Priabonian, Egypt
Classification and/or Status	Irregularia; Cassiduloida; Echinolampadidae. Subjective junior synonym of Echinolampas (Miolampas) Pomel, 1883.
Remarks	Merolampas has the very marked inequality in the length of the two series of pore-pairs in each petal, the shorter pore-series measuring between half to two-thirds of the length of the longer pore-series; typical of Echinolampas (Miolampas). From Quenstedt's drawing the phyllodes appear to be simple and double pored. The accuracy of this drawing is questionable. P. M. Kier. 1962. Revision of the cassiduloid echinoids. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 144 (3) 262 pp. F. A. Quenstedt. 1872-1875. Petrefactenkunde Deutschlands. 1. Abt. 3. Bd. Die Echiniden. Leipzig, Fues's Verlag (R. Reisland), 720 pp., 62-89 pls.