The Echinoid Directory

Pygopyrina Pomel, 1883, p. 54

[?=Conodoxus Pomel, 1883, p. 74, nomen vanum ]

Diagnostic Features	Test relatively small, subovate in outline, depressed in profile with rounded ambitus. Apical system central, tetrabasal with four genital plates all in contact. The posterior ocular plates abutting to the rear of the genital plates and in direct contact with the periproct. Periproct large, elongate tear-shaped, extending from the posterior ocular plates towards the posterior margin. Not significantly depressed (no anal groove). Ambulacra narrow adapically, petals undeveloped, pore-pairs small, simple, uniserial throughout, becoming very slightly offset in lines of three adorally. No buccal pores. Plating not known, possibly pyrinoid. Interambulacra wide. Tuberculation of small uniform primaries with slightly sunken areoles scattered over plates. No oral aboral differentiation. Peristome central, oblique with long axis running from ambulacrum I to Interambulacrum 3, a little depressed. Possibly with traces of feeble buccal notches. Bourrelets absent.
Distribution	Upper Jurassic (Oxfordian-Kimmeridgian), Europe, USA.
Name gender	feminine
Type	Desorella icaunensis Cotteau, 1855, p. 711; by original designation.
Species Included	P. icaunensis Cotteau, 1855; Oxfordian-Kimmeridgian, France P. guerangeri (Vadet, 2000) (?non Cotteau, 1862); Bathonian, France P. jurensis Etallon, 1860; Kimmeridgian, Switzerland P. hanckockensis (Whitney & Kellum, 1966); Albian, USA plus others...
Classification and/or Status	Irregularia; Echinoneoida. Treated as a subjective junior synonym of Pyrinodia Pomel, 1883, by Vadet (2000). However it is not certain that the specimen on which he based this is really conspecific with the type species of Pyrinodia.
Remarks	Having the periproct still in contact with the posterior ocular plates of the apical disc is a primitive feature and distinguishes Pygopyrina from all other Echinoneioida. Pomel, A. 1883. Classification methodique et genera des echinides vivants et fossiles. Adolphe Jourdan, Alger. Mortensen, T. 1948. A monograph of the Echinoidea: 4 (1): Holectypoida, Cassiduloida. Reitzel, Copenhagen, 363 pp., 14 pls.