The Echinoid Directory

Pironaster Munier-Chalmas, 1890, p. 181

[=Conulopsis Hawkins, 1912, p. 491 (objective) ]

Diagnostic Features	Test ovate in outline, subconical in profile with flat base and low ambitus. Apical system central, tetrabasal with four gonopores; genital plates subequal in size and all in contact. The posterior genital plates abutting to the rear of genital plate 2, and the posterior ocular plates separated. Periproct small, about as wide as long, tear-shaped, inframarginal to oral in postition. Ambulacra narrow, plating simple throughout; pore-pairs small, simple, uniserial throughout, becoming very slightly offset in lines of three close to the peristome. No buccal pores. Interambulacra wide. Tuberculation of small uniform primaries with slightly sunken areoles scattered over plates; in between there is a dense uniform granulation. No oral/aboral differentiation. Peristome subcentral, small, subcircular; almost flush. No perignathic girdle. Lantern and spines unknown.
Distribution	Upper Cretaceous (Campanian - Maastrichtian), Europe.
Name gender	masculine
Type	Caratomus roemeri Desor, in Agassiz & Desor, 1847, p. 93, by original designation.
Species Included	Schulz (1985) included the following species: P. ernsti Schulz, 1985; Campanian, Germany. P. roemeri (Desor, 1847); Campanian, Germany and Poland. P. schmidi Schulz, 1985; Maastrichtian, Germany.
Classification and/or Status	Irregularia; Echinoneoida, Galeritidae. Subjective junior synonym of Galerites Lamarck, 1801.
Remarks	Schulz (1985) treated this as a subgenus of Galerites, separating it by its slightly more offset pore-pairs close to the peristome. However, the difference is very slight and the subgenus was not maintained by Smith & Wright (1999). Hawkins, H. L. 1912. The classification, morphology and evolution of the Echinoidea Holectypoida. Proceedings of the Zoological Society, London 1912, 440-497. Munier-Chalmas 1890. Bulletin de la Societe geologique de France serie 3, 18, p. 181. Schulz, M.-G. 1985. Die Evolution der Echiniden-Gattung Galerites im Campan und Maastricht Norddeutschlands. Geologisches Jahrbuch A, 80, 1-96. Smith, A. B. & Wright, C. W. 1999. British Cretaceous Echinoids. Part 5, Holectypoida, Echinoneoida. Monograph of the Palaeontographical Society London: pp. 343-390, pls 115-129 (publication number 612, part of volume 153).