The Echinoid Directory

• Test ovate without anterior sulcus; posterior face truncate. Test subconical in profile.
• Apical disc ethmolytic with four gonopores; anterior of centre.
• Anterior ambulacrum flush; narrow; with small rudimentary pore-pairs only aborally.
• Paired ambulacral with well-developed petals; bowed and closed distally, with pore-pairs conjugate. Anterior column of anterior petals weakly sigmoidal and with rudimentary pore-pairs adapically.
• Peristome D-shaped and downward-facing.
• Labral plate longitudinally elongate; paired sternal plates not much longer and trigonal; fully tuberculate.
• Periproct on posterior truncate face.
• Subanal fasciole present; narrow peripetalous fasciole also present; not indented interradially.
• Coarse primary tubercles present in anterior and lateral interambulacra aborally inside the peripetalous fasciole. Areoles depressed but not deeply sunken.

The type species is from the Lower Miocene of Malta.

Metalia melitensis Gregory, 1891, p. 621, by original designation.

Spatangoida, Micrasterina, Maretiidae.

Polyphyletic as originally conceived. Subjective junior synonym of Eupatagus.

Created by Fourtau (1913) to encompass forms with a radiating pattern of tubercles in the subanal fasciole. In fact, as pointed out by Lambert & Thiery (1921), this is a common feature of most brissids, making Fourtau\'s group polyphyletic.

Fourtau, R. 1913.  Notes sur les échinides fossiles de l'Egypte. Bulletin de l'Institut Egyptien, 5(7) : 62-71.