The Echinoid Directory

Galerites Lamarck, 1801, p. 346

[=Echinoconus d\'Orbigny, 1854, p. 29 (objective); Pironaster Munier-Chalmas, 1890, p. 181, type species Caratomus roemeri Desor, 1847; =Conulopsis Hawkins, 1921, p. 491, type species Caratomus roemeri Desor, 1847. ]

Diagnostic Features	Test thick; subcircular in outline, hemispherical to subconical in profile with flattish base and low ambitus. Apical system central, tetrabasal with four gonopores; genital plates subequal in size and all in contact. The posterior genital plates in contact behind genital plate 2; the posterior ocular plates widely separated. Periproct small, subcircular, slightly raised. Oral in postition close to posterior margin. Ambulacra narrow adapically, pore-pairs small, simple, uniserial throughout, becoming very slightly offset in lines of three adorally. No buccal pores. Ambulacral plating simple throughout. Interambulacra wide. On the oral surface a raised band runs from the periproct to peristome. Tuberculation of small uniform primaries with slightly sunken areoles scattered over plates with dense uniform granulation in between. No oral/aboral differentiation. Peristome small subcentral, circular, with or without a small invaginated lip. No perignathic girdle; spines unknown.
Distribution	Upper Cretaceous (Santonian-Maastrichtian), Europe.
Name gender	masculine
Type	Echinites vulgaris Leske, 1778, p. 165, by original designation.
Species Included	G. vulgaris (Leske, 1778); Campanian-Maastrichtian, Europe. G. hemisphaericus (Desor, 1842); Upper Campanian, Europe. G. sulcatoradiatus Goldfuss, 1829; Maastrichtian, Europe. G. stadensis (Lambert, 1911); Maastrichtian, Europe. G. ernsti (Schulz, 1985); Campanian, Germany. G. roemeri (Desor, 1847); Campanian, Germany and Poland. G. schmidi (Schulz, 1985); Maastrichtian, Germany.
Classification and/or Status	Irregularia; Echinoneoida, Galeritidae.
Remarks	Distinguished from Conulus by having simple ambulacral plating throughout. Lamarck, J. B. P. M. d. 1801. Système des animaux sans vertèbres, ou Tableau général des classes, des ordres et des genres des ces animaux, 432 pp. Deterville, Paris. Schulz, M.-G. 1985. Die Evolution der Echiniden-Gattung Galerites im Campan und Maastricht Norddeutschlands. Geologisches Jahrbuch A, 80, 1-96. Smith, A. B. & Wright, C. W. 1999. British Cretaceous Echinoids. Part 5, Holectypoida, Echinoneoida. Monograph of the Palaeontographical Society London: pp. 343-390, pls 115-129 (publication number 612, part of volume 153).