The Echinoid Directory

Coptechinus Cotteau, 1884, p. 456.

[Viaudechinus Roman, 1983, p. 4, type species Dicoptella bigoti Lambert & Thiery, 1911 ]

Diagnostic Features	Test low, flattened above and below. Apical disc large, showing sexual dimporphism. In females deeply invaginated and more than half test diameter. In males much smaller and not invaginated. Ambulacra straight; pore-pairs uniserial throughout, without phyllodes; pore-pairs undifferentiated, the pore zone somewhat sunken. Ambulacral plating trigeminate; individual elements not clearly seen but presumed echinid-style. Each compound plate with a primary tubercle; positioned close to the pore-pair; tubercles slightly larger on oral surface. Interambulacral plates a little wider than tall, each with a primary tubercle positioned adradially; much smaller secondaries present around the primary and along the epistromal ridges. Primary tubercles imperforate and non-crenulate. Strong ornamentation present, consisting of large wedge-shaped pits alternating down the interradius and perradius, plus narrower pits on the adradial side of primary interambulacral tubercles along sutures. Narrow ridges of epistroma bearing small secondaries. Peristome slightly sunken with small but clearly marked buccal notches. No sphaeridial pits, no basicoronal interambulacral plate. Spines and lantern unknown.
Distribution	Upper Miocene-Pliocene; Europe.
Name gender	masculine
Type	Coptechinus bardini Cotteau, 1883, p. 127, by monotypy.
Species Included	C. bardini Cotteau, 1884; Upper Miocene-Pliocene, France. C. bigoti (Lambert & Thiery, 1911); Upper Miocene-Pliocene, France.
Classification and/or Status	Camarodonta; Temnopleuroida; Temnopleuridae.
Remarks	See Roman (1983) for a thorough description of this taxon. Distinguished from Temnechinus by having non-crenulate primary tubercles and by the absence of sunken adapical interradial marsupia. Distinguished from Paradoxechinus by its much coarser style of plate ornamentation. Cotteau, G. 1884 (January). Echinides nouveaux ou peu connus. Bulletin de la Societe zoologique de France 8 [for 1883], p. 450-464. Roman, J. 1983. Echinides marsupiaux (fam. Temnopleuridae) dans le Neogene de l\'Ouest europeen. Annales de Paleontologie (Vertebres-Invertebres) 69, p. 27.