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The Echinoid Directory

Astrolampas Pomel, 1883, p. 63

[=Mepygurus Pomel, 1883, p. 65, type species Pygurus michelini Cotteau, 1849; =Mercieripygurus Vadet, 1997, p. 58, type species Clypeaster hausmanni; ?=Astropygaulus Checchia-Rispoli 1945, p. 82, type species Astropygaulus trigonopygus Checchia-Rispoli, 1945, p. 82. ]

Diagnostic Features
  • Test medium to large, very low, elongate.
  • Apical system anterior, tetrabasal.
  • Petals long, broad, slightly closed distally; interporiferous zones much wider than poriferous, petaloid pores conjugate, outer pore slit-like, all ambulacral plates double pored.
  • Periproct oral, a little removed from the posterior margin.
  • Peristome anterior, pentagonal.
  • Bourrelets slightly developed, not inflated but adjacent ambulacra sunken.
  • Phyllodes long, narrow, double pored, with two series of pore pairs in each half-ambulacrum.
  • No buccal pores.
Distribution
Early to Late Cretaceous (Valanginian-Cenomanian) of Europe and Syria.
Name gender feminine
Type
Pygurus productus L. Agassiz, 1836, p. 135, by original designation.
Species Included
  • A. depressus (A. Agassiz, in Agassiz & Desor, 1847); Bathonian-Callovian Middle Jurassic of France, Switzerland, England, Madagascar and Somalia.
  • A. hausmanni (Koch & Dunker, 1837); Middle Jurassic (Bathonian- Oxfordian) of England and France.
  • A. productus (L. Agassiz, 1836a); Valanginian, Early Cretaceous of France and Switzerland.

Lambert & Thiery (1909-25) also list the following species under Astrolampas.

  • A. gillieroni Desor, 1872 ; Valanginian, Early Cretaceous of Europe.
  • A. romani Lambert, 1904; Valanginian, Early Cretaceous of Europe.
  • A. salevensis De Loriol, 1863; Albian, Early Cretaceous of Europe.
  • A. ricordeanus d\'Orbigny, 1855; Albian, Early Cretaceous of Europe.
  • A. libanensis De Loriol, 1873; Cenomanien, Late Cretaceous of Syria.
Astropygaulus trigonopygus Checchia Rispoli, 1945, from the Lower Cretaceous of Somalia, is based on an incompelte specimen that may belong to this genus.
Classification and/or Status
Irregularia; Neognathostomata incertae sedis
Remarks

Mortensen (1948) points out that Astrolampas seems to be closely related ro Pygurus, to which many of the species were originally referred. Mortensen (1948, p. 135) states that if the apical system of A. productus should be found to be tetrabasal, the genus should be considered a synonym of Pygurus. The apical system of A. productus is distinctly tetrabasal. However, Astrolampas differs from Pygurus by having bourrelets that are not inflated, and narrow phyllodes with two series of pore pairs, the inner series widely separated from the outer. In Pygurus the bourrelets are strongly inflated and the pore series in each half ambulacrum of the phyllodes are always close together (Kier, 1962; p. 52).

Lambert & Thiery (1921, p. 357) refer to seven species in this genus. Kier (1962, p. 52) notes that Lambert\'s A. romani should be referred to as a species of Pygorhynchus, while Cotteau\'s Bothriopygus coquandi does not have an inframarginal periproct and cannot therefore be an Astrolampas, but should be referred to Parapygus.

J. Lambert & P. Thiery. 1909-1925. Essai de nomenclature raisonnee des echinides. Libraire Septime Ferriere, Chaumont, 60

P. M. Kier. 1962. Revision of the cassiduloid echinoids. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 144 (3) 262 pp.

T. Mortensen. 1948. A monograph of the Echinoidea: 4 (1): Holectypoida, Cassiduloida. Reitzel, Copenhagen, 363 pp., 14 pls.

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.