The Echinoid Directory

Antillaster Lambert, 1909, p. 103

[=Pseudasterostoma Sanchez Roig, 1952, p. 5 (objective) ]

Diagnostic Features	Test ovate with feeble anterior sulcus; typically large and domed in profile with relatively flat base. Apical disc ethmolytic with three gonopores in the type species; anterior of centre [Some species assigned to this genus have four gonopores]. Anterior ambulacrum flush adapically, becoming feebly sunken towards ambitus. Pore-pairs small and uniserial. Paired ambulacra flush and extending to ambitus; parallel-sided and open distally; outer pore in each pair elongate. Ends of petals with occluded plates. Peristome kidney-shaped and depressed, with labral plate over-arching. Plastron plating: labral plate subquadrate, slightly longer than wide; extending to third ambulacral plate. Sternal plates narrow, extending to ambulacral plate 6 or 7. Episternal plates paired and subquadrate, not indented by ambulacral zones; forming posterior part of plastron. Periproct marginal to oral; large; bounded by interambulacral plates 5a5/5b5. No fascioles present in adults. Aboral tuberculation heterogeneous, with scattered primary tubercles over the entire aboral surface.
Distribution	Eocene to Miocene, Caribbean.
Name gender	masculine
Type	Asterostoma cubensis Cotteau, 1871, p. 5, by original designation.
Species Included	A. arnoldi Clark; Eocene, Cuba and Jamaica. A. albeari Kier, 1984; Middle to Upper Eocene, Cuba (4 gonopores). A. fernadezi (Sanchez Roig, 1952); Late Oligocene or Miocene, Cuba. A. cubensis (Cotteau, 1871); Miocene, Cuba. A. lamberti Jeannet, 1928; Oligo-Miocene, Cuba, Venezuela. A. sanchezi Lambert, 1924; Early to Middle Miocene, Cuba. A. vaughani (Jackson, 1922); Oligocene, Miocene of Mexico, Cuba and Antigua (4 gonopores). A. elegans (Jackson, 1922): Miocene, Puerto Rico (4 gonopores).
Classification and/or Status	Spatangoida, Paleopneustina, Paleopneustidae. Monophyletic.
Remarks	Kier (1984) made a thorough revision of the species included in this genus. According to Kier (1984, p. 137) the type species cannot be traced in the Cotteau collection. Moronaster is very similar, but differs in having narrow, weakly sunken petals. Lambert, J. 1909. Description des Echinides fossiles des terrains mioceniques de la Sardaigne. Abhandlungen der Schweizerischen Palaeontologischen Gesellschaft, 35, 73-142. Kier, P. M. 1984. Fossil spatangoid echinoids from Cuba. Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology 55, 1-336. Arnold B. W. & Clark, H. L. 1927. Harvard University Museum of Comparative Zoology Memoir 50, 62-63, pl. 15, fig. 3, pl. 16, pl. 17.