The Echinoid Directory

Douvillaster Lambert, 1917, p. 105 (18)

[=Hypsaster Pomel, 1883, p. 43 (non Hypsaster Pomel, 1869, p. 16) ]

Diagnostic Features	Test ovate with distinct anterior sulcus; posterior face truncate. Test rather depressed in profile. Apical disc ethmophract with four gonopores; central. Ambulacrum III sunken from apex to peristome; pore-pairs smaller than in other ambulacra but elongate with slit-like pores. Paired ambulacra petaloid; petals large, gently sunken, with wide pore-pairs with transverse pores. Petals open distally and with wide interporal zone. Anterior and posterior petals similar in length - the anterior reaching the ambitus, the posterior stopping slightly before the ambitus. Peristome small and subcircular at some distance from the anterior border and facing obliquely downwards. Labral plate longitudinally elongate and expanding posteriorly. Contacts both sternal plates. Sternal plates unequal, with 5.a.2 smaller and just touching the labral plate, the separating suture running obliquely. Episternal plates biserially offset. Periproct high on posterior truncate face; relatively small. No fascioles present. Aboral tuberculation of widely scattered small primary tubercles set in a groundmass of granules.
Distribution	Cretaceous (Aptian toTuronian), Europe, Africa, Middle East, Madagascar.
Name gender	masculine
Type	Epiaster vatonnei Coquand, 1878, p. 92, by original designation.
Species Included	The following taxa are listed by Neumann (1996), but will probably be reduced with revision: D. convexus (Gauthier); Aptian, Iran D. valamtarensis Gauthier; Aptian, Iran D. douvillei Cotteau & Gauthier; Albian, Iran D. husseini Cotteau & Gauthier; Albian, Iran D. longesulcatus Cotteau & Gauthier; Albian, Iran & Spain D. hourqui Collignon; Albian, Madagascar D. pedicellatus Gauthier; Albian, Algeria D. thomasi Gauthier; Albian, Algeria D. variosulcatus Gauthier; Albian, Algeria D. benguellensis (de Loriol); Albian, Angola D. vatonnei (Coquand); Cenomanian, Algeria D. bleicheri (Gauthier); Cenomanian, Tunisia D. meslei Gauthier; Cenomanian, Tunisia D. lorioli (Fourtau); Cenomanian, Syria D. ludovici (Fourtau); Cenomanian, Syria D. subtriangonalis Szorenyi; Cenomanian, Hungary D. zumoffeni (Fourtau); Turonian, Syria
Classification and/or Status	Spatangoida, stem group (toxasterids). Junior synonym of Macraster Roemer 1888.
Remarks	Identical to Macraster in all features of importance. Historically, American species have been placed in the genus Macraster while European and North African species have been placed in Douvillaster. Neumann (1996) provides a description of this taxon and discusses its geographic distribution and mode of life. Lambert, J. 1917. Revue critique de paleozoologie 21, p. 105. Neumann, C. 1996. The mode of life and paleobiogeography of the genus Douvillaster Lambert (Echinoidea: Spatangoida) as first recorded in the Lower Cretaceous (Albian) of Spain. Berliner Geowissenschaft Abhandlungen E 18, 257-265.