The Echinoid Directory

Ceratophysa Pomel, 1883, p. 40

[=Rodocystis Lambert & Thiery, 1924, p. 424 (subjective) ]

Diagnostic Features	Test large and triangular in outline, with shallow, wide anterior notch at ambitus but deep, narrow groove leading to peristome on oral surface; thin-shelled. Strongly developed subanal rostrum. Apical disc with four gonopores. Compact, with single anterior plate followed by ocular plates with gonopores. Disjunct with posterior oculars separated from remainder of disc Ambulacra all similar with minute pores only. Peristome small and facing forwards into anterior groove. Plastron structure unknown. Scattered small tubercles distributed over the aboral surface. Periproct aboral, with overarching interambulacral hood. Subanal fasciole at end of rostrum.
Distribution	Recent; Antarctic and subantarctic waters.
Name gender	feminine
Type	Pourtalesia ceratopyga A. Agassiz, 1879, p. 205, by subsequent designation of Mortensen, 1907, p. 82.
Species Included	C. ceratopyga (A. Agassiz, 1879); Recent C. ? rosea (A. Agassiz, 1879); Recent
Classification and/or Status	Holasteroida, Meridosternata, Urechinina, Pourtalesiidae. Presumed monophyletic.
Remarks	Differs from Pourtalesia in having a greatly expanded and Y-shaped anterior. Differs from the rather similarly shaped Echinocrepis in having a well-developed subanal rostrum and the periproct aboral. Mortensen, T.1950. A Monograph of the Echinoidea. V.1. Spatangoida 1. C. A. Reitzel, Copenhagen. Pomel, A. 1883. Classification méthodique et genera des Échinides vivante et fossiles. Thèses présentées a la Faculté des Sciences de Paris pour obtenir le Grade de Docteur ès Sciences Naturelles, 503, 131 pp. Aldolphe Jourdan, Alger.