The Echinoid Directory

Leniechinus Kier, 1968, p. 4

Diagnostic Features	Small, lentil-shaped test up to 21 mm in length. Tapering to rounded point anteriorly. Apical disc central with four gonopores. Petals small but distinct; pore-zones parallel and open distally. Ambulacral zones a little wider than interambulacral zones at ambitus. Peristome central with small rim. No food grooves. Periproct opening on oral surface near posterior margin; at contact between the first and second pair of post-basicoronal plates. Basicoronal ambulacral and interambulacral plates of similar length. Tubercles on oral surface bilaterally arranged with broad naked sagittal zone. Primary tubercles confined to the lateral margins. Ten internal radial partitions.
Distribution	Middle Eocene, southern USA (Georgia).
Name gender	masculine
Type	Leniechinus herricki Kier, 1968, by original designation.
Species Included	Only the type species.
Classification and/or Status	Clypeasteroida; Scutellina; Laganiformes; Echinocyamidae. Monotypic.
Remarks	Like Lenita in having a distinct bilateral symmetry to its oral tuberculation but differing from that genus in having an oral rather than aboral periproct. Leniechinus differs from Lenicyamidia in having radial partitions developed internally. Kier, P. M. 1968 Echinoids from the Middle Eocene Lake City Formation of Georgia. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 153, 1-45, pls 1-10.