The Echinoid Directory

Hemicara Schlüter, 1902, p. 332

Diagnostic Features	Test of medium size, highly inflated, flat adoral surface. Apical system tetrabasal, with four genital pores, no catenal plates. Petals only slightly developed, narrow and parallel, the two pores subrounded. All ambulacral plates double-pored. Periproct inframarginal, ovate, weakly transverse. Peristome pentagonal , width equal to height. Pseudobourrelets (formed by multiple plates) strongly developed, forming blunt inflated pegs. Phyllodes widened, double-pored, with two series in each half ambulacrum. No buccal pores. Narrow naked medium zone in interambulacrum 5 adorally.
Distribution	Upper Cretaceous (Cenomanian) of Poland and Germany.
Name gender	neuter
Type	Hemicara pomeranum Schlüter, 1902, p. 332; by monotypy.
Species Included	Only the type species.
Classification and/or Status	Irregularia; Neognathostomata; 'catopygids'.
Remarks	Kier (1962, p. 98) states that Hemicara is easily distinguished from all other 'nucleolitids' and may not belong to this family. Hemicara resembles Catopygus in having slightly developed petals and a similar floscelle. However, Hemicara has a much broader test than Catopygus, and can immediately be distinguished by its inframarginal periproct, which is distinctly marginal in Catopygus. Maczynska (1972) has given a detailed description of the type species. Kier, P. M. 1962. Revision of the cassiduloid echinoids. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 144 (3) 262 pp. Maczynska, S. 1972. Hemicara pomeranum Schluter, 1902 (Echinoids) from the Maastrichtian of Bochotnica near Pulawy, central Poland. Pracowina Paleozoologiczna, Prace Muzeum Ziemi, Warszawa: 20 1 pp, 3 pls. Schlüter, C. 1902. Zur Gattung Caratomus (Nebst einigen litterarischen Bemerkungen und Anhang). Zeitschrift der deutschen geologischen Gesselschaft, 54, 302-335, pls 11, 12.