The Echinoid Directory

Proescutella Pomel, 1883, p. 70

[=Praescutella Pomel, 1883, p. 130; Cotteau, 1883, p. 254 [lapsis cal.] ]

Diagnostic Features	Test with sharp margin; circular in outline, distinctly conical in profile. Apical disc central, with 4 gonopores. Buttressing well-developed towards periphery with concentric partitions and radial bars. Petals well developed, extending about half-way to the ambitus; open distally, especially the anterior petal; Ambulacral zones much wider than interambulacral zones at ambitus. All interambulacrum continuous on oral surface. Periproct oral, close to the posterior margin; opening between fourth and fifth pair of interambulacral plates. Food grooves comprising short primary trunk.
Distribution	Middle Eocene of France (Loire inferieur and Vendee).
Name gender	feminine
Type	Scutella caillaudi Cotteau, 1861, p. 46, by original designation. Holotype: University of Lyon Palaeontological Collections EM 40588.
Species Included	Only the type species.
Classification and/or Status	Clypeasteroida; Scutellina; Scutelliformes, Echinarachniidae. Monotypic.
Remarks	Mortensen (1948) considered this very close to Peronella but noted that the original figures showed the ambulacra biserial to the apex. Because of this it cannot be treated as a laganid but represents a stem-group scutelline or Scuteliformes. Cotteau, G. 1891. Paleontologie francais ou description des fossiles de la France. Terrains Tertiaires, Eocene Echinides II, feuilles 14-16 209-256, pls 261-272. Mortensen, T. 1948. A Monograph of the Echinoidea IV.2 Clypeasteroida. C. A. Reitzel, Copenhagen. Pomel, A. 1883. Classification méthodique et genera des Échinides vivante et fossiles. Thèses présentées a la Faculté des Sciences de Paris pour obtenir le Grade de Docteur ès Sciences Naturelles, 503, 131 pp. Aldolphe Jourdan, Alger.