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The Echinoid Directory

Temnholectypus Lambert 1920, p. 13

[=Temnodiscus Lambert & Thiery, 1911, p. 280 (non Koken, 1896) ]

Diagnostic Features
  • Apical disc with fifth genital plate perforated by a gonopore; hydropores confined to genital plate 2.
  • Aboral plating smooth and unornamented by pits.
  • Periproct small and circular, separated from the peristome by 2 to 4 interambulacral plates and  far removed from the ambitus.
  • No internal  butressing.
Distribution
Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian to Maastrichtian); North Africa, the Middle East and India.
Name gender masculine
Type
Holectypus circularis Cotteau & Gauthier, 1895, p. 75, by original designation.
Species Included
  • Temnholectypus circularis (Cotteau & Gauthier, 1895); Campanian-Maastrichtian of Iran. [Includes Holectypus baluchistanensis Noetling, 1897]
  • T. larteti (Cotteau, 1869); Cenomanian of North Africa and the Middle East.
  • T. archiaci (Cotteau, 1861); Coniacian-Santonian of Aude, France.
  • T. transpecosensis (Cragin, 1893), Late Albian of Texas and Mexico.
Classification and/or Status

Holectypoida, Holectypidae, Coenholectypinae.

Monophyletic.
Remarks

Lambert & Thiery (1911, p. 280) established this genus for the species Holectypus circularis Cotteau & Gauthier, on the grounds that it has small pits over its aboral surface. These are not evident in the original diagrams, nor are they mentioned in the accompanying description. Unfortunately they first used a preoccupied name, Temnodiscus, for this taxon, only correcting the situation a few years later, when Lambert (1920) substituted the name Temnholectypus. If Lambert & Thiery were correct in their observation of pits then this is simply a less ornate species of Coptodiscus. Alternatively, as it comes from the same locality and horizon as the type species Coptodiscus nomiae, it may simply be a poorly preserved individual of this species. Type material is presumably in the Museum National d\'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, but has not been traced, hence the ambiguity over the status of this species.

Cotteau, G. H. & Gauthier, V. 1895. Mission scientifique en Perse par J. de Morgan; études géologiques des échinides fossiles. Volume 3, 1-107. E. Leroux, Paris.

Lambert, J. 1920. Echinides fossiles des environs de Santander. Annales de la Societe Linneenne de Lyon 66, p. 13.