The Echinoid Directory

Scutella Lamarck, 1816, p. 7

Diagnostic Features	Test circular to weakly pentagonal. Base flat and upper surface weakly convex; margin sharp. Internal radial partitions well developed and complex. Apical disc central; 4 gonopores. Petals well developed but relatively short (50% radius); closed distally. Basicoronal circlet pentagonal without projecting interambulacral plates. Interambulacral zones about as wide as ambulacra at ambitus. All interambulacrum continuous on oral surface but contact between basicoronals and first post-basicoronals is narrow. Food grooves and tube-feet extending over interambulacral plates. Periproct oral, closer to peristome than to marginal; opening between first pair of post-basicoronal interambulacral plates. Food grooves present, bifurcating at end of basicoronal circlet and with distal branching.
Distribution	Oligocene to Lower Miocene of the Mediterranean region.
Name gender	feminine
Type	Scutella subrotunda Lamarck, 1816, by subsequent designation of L. Agassiz, 1841, p. 5.
Species Included	Probably only the type species.
Classification and/or Status	Clypeasteroida; Scutellina; Scutelliformes; Scutellidea; Scutellidae. Monotypic.
Remarks	Distinguished from Parascutella and Parmulechinus by the position of its periproct, which lies much closer to the peristome and opens within the first pair of psot-basicoronal interambulacral plates. Its lack of lunules or notches distinguish it from the Astriclypeidae and Mellitidae. J. W. Durham 1955. Classification of clypeasteroid echinoids. University of California Publications in Geological Sciences 31(4), 73-198. J.W. Durham 1953, Type species of Scutella. Journal of Paleontology 27, 347-352. Lamarck, J. B. de 1816. Histoire naturelle des Animaux sans Vertebres, viii, 432 pp., Paris.