The Echinoid Directory

Galeola Quenstedt, 1874, p. 585

[=Corculum Pomel, 1883, p. 48, type species Anachytes corculum Goldfuss, 1829, p. 147 ]

Diagnostic Features	Test ovate with flat base and subconical upper surface; no anterior sulcus. Apical disc relatively large; with four gonopores. All ambulacra flush, with small circumflexed pore-pairs adapically. Plastron meridosternous, with a single sternal plate following the labrum. Subsequent plates biserial. Periproct inframarginal on steeply undercut posterior face. No enlarged primary tubercles aborally. No fascioles.
Distribution	Upper Cretaceous, Europe, former Soviet Union.
Name gender	feminine
Type	Galeola papillosa Quenstedt, 1874, p. 595, by original designation.
Species Included	G. papillosa (Leske, 1778); Campanian, Germany. G. senonensis (d\'Orbigny, 1855); Santonian, Campanian, Europe.
Classification and/or Status	Holasteroida, basal Meridosternata, ?Holasteridae.
Remarks	Very like Echinocorys Leske, but smaller and with periproct distinctly inframarginal rather than oral. Close to Offaster, differing in having no trace of an adoral sulcus and an inframarginal periproct. According to Ernst (1971) transitional forms link this taxon to Offaster. Ernst, G. 1971. Biometrische Untersuchungen uber die Ontogenie und Phylogenie der Offaster/Galeola-Stammesreihe (Echinoidea) aus des nordwesteuropaischen Oberkreide. Neues Jahrbuch fur Geologie und Palaontologie Abhandlungen 139, 169-225. Quenstedt, F. A. 1872-1875. Petrefactenkunde Deutschlands. 1 Abt., 3. Echinodermen (Echinoiden), 719 pp., 28 pls. Fues's Verlag, Leipzig. Smith, A. B. & Wright, C. W. 2003. British Cretaceous echinoids. Part 7, Atelostomata, 1. Holasteroida. Palaeontographical Society Monographs, London. Pp. 440-568, pls 139-182.