The Echinoid Directory

Zardinitiaris Vadet, 2001, p. 71

Diagnostic Features	Species based on spines. Spines variable in form; cylindrical to conical. Shaft ornamented with transverse ridges, usually oblique or wavy. Almost no neck; base short, distinctly crenulate and perforate.
Distribution	Late Triassic (Carnian); Italy.
Name gender	feminine
Type	Cidaris flexuosa Munster, 1841, p. 44, by original designation.
Species Included	Only the type species.
Classification and/or Status	Spine-based taxon; indeterminate.
Remarks	This is a spine-based taxon. No spines are definitely associated with tests. However, Vadet (2000, p. 71) attributed interambulacral fragments of Serpianotiaris [described as Zardinitiaris flexuosa] on the basis that the spines of Cidaris fexuosa were crenulate. As Hagdorn (1995) has shown, the spines of Serpianotiaris are very different from those named flexuosa and there is no justification for this association of plates and spines. Zardini (1976) provides the most thorough description and illustration of the type species. Zardini, R. 1976. Fossili di Cortina: Atlane degli Echinodermi Cassiani Trias Medio superiore dell regione Dolomitica attorno a Xortina d'Ampezzo. Luglio, 29 pp, 22 pls. Vadet, A. 2001. Revision des echinides de Saint Cassian et evolution des echinides post-carboniferes. Memoires de la Societe Academique du Boulonnais 20, 1-116.