Popular search terms:

Home / Our science / Data / Echinoid Directory

The Echinoid Directory

Family Echinometridae Gray, 1855, p. 37

Diagnosis  Echinoida with:
  • test circular or ovate in outline;
  • ambulacra trigeminate or polygenimate;
  • buccal notches extremely feeble;
  • single asymmetrical lateral tooth on narrow tubular blade of globiferous pedicellariae;
  • echinopluteus with basket-like arrangement of spicules in early stage.
Range Middle Eocene? Oligocene to Recent, tropical and temporate worldwide.
Remarks Echinometridae are primarily distinguished on their globiferous pedicellarial structure. Parasalenia is an exception (it lacks the asymmetric lateral tooth on the blade of its globiferous pedicellariae), but is included in this family because of its ovate test. The group may be paraphyletic and is need of a detailed phylogenetic analysis.

Gray, J. E. 1855. An arrangement of the families of Echinida, with description of some new genera and species. Proceedings of the Zoological Society, London 1855, 35-39.