The Echinoid Directory

Contributed by Andrew Smith, September 2006

Pseudorthopsis Sanchez Roig, 1949, p. 37

Diagnostic Features	Test large and depressed with rounded ambitus. Apical disc small and dicyclic with relatively large periproct. Ambulacra narrow and compound in acrosaleniid style. All plates reaching the perradial suture. Pore-pairs uniserial adapically but becoming offset towards ambitus into distinct oblique arcs of three with every third pore-pair distinctly indented; slightly crowding of pore-pairs at peristome. Primary tubercle uniting two of the three plates and with granules only on third element. Interambulacral zones wide with large primary interambulacral tubercle flanked by a prominent secondary tubercle on either side in larger individuals. Remainder of plate covered in sparse granules. Tubercles non-crenulate and imperforate; areole never sunken. Buccal notches present but relatively small. Lantern supports, lantern and spines unknown.
Distribution	Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian); Cuba.
Name gender	feminine
Type	Echinopedina cubensis Cotteau, 1881, p. 9, by original designation.
Species Included	Only the type species.
Classification and/or Status	Acroechinoidea, Carinacea, Orthopsidae. Monotypic
Remarks	Differs from Orthopsis only in having pore-pairs arranged in oblique triads at the ambitus with every third pore-pair distinctly indented rather than a single series. Sanchez Roig, M. 1949. Los equinodermos fosiles de Cuba. Paleontologia Cubana 1, 330 pp, 50 pls. Smith, A. B. & Jeffery, C. H. 2000. Maastrichtian and Palaeocene echinoids: A key to world faunas. Special Papers in Palaeontology 64, 1-404. Cotteau, G. 1897. Descripcion de los equinoides fosiles de la Isla de Cuba. Boletin de la Comision del Mapa Geologico de Espana 22 (2), 1-98, pls 1-29.