Benthopectinidae Verrill 1894

Benthopectinidae Verrill, 1894 Fig. 6A–B, F ? Benthopectinidae Verrill, 1894: 217. Material Seventeen marginal ossicles; the inferomarginal figured (Fig. 6A) is MHI 2183/7; the other inferomarginal and oral ossicle illustrated here are MHI 2183/8 and 9. All are from the Maantang Formation (Carnian, Upper Triassic; sample C30) at Jiancougou, Sechuan Province, China. Description The inferomarginal and oral ossicles are strongly reminiscent in shape and external sculpture of those of benthopectinids; compare Fig. 6A–B with benthopectinid marginals (Fig. 6C–E), and the oral (Fig. 6F) with those of benthopectinids (Fig. 6G–I). The inferomarginals share a number of similarities to those of benthopectinids (Fig. 6A–E), notably the coarse, longitudinally arranged rows of rugosities, the presence of a large spine (or pedicellaria) base close to the abactinal margin of the plate, and the marked asymmetry of the distal inferomarginals, in which the distal height is less than the proximal one. The oral ossicles (Fig. 6F) are remarkably similar to those of benthopectinids in the evenly convex actinal margin, the distally angled apophyse and the shape of the adambulacral articulation (Fig. 6G–I). However, the material available to date is too limited, and in the absence of ambulacrals and adambulacrals, this referral is very tentative.
Published as part of Gale, Andy S. & Jagt, John W. M., 2021, The fossil record of the family Benthopectinidae (Echinodermata, Asteroidea), a reappraisal, pp. 149-190 in European Journal of Taxonomy 755 on page 174, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2021.755.1405, http://zenodo.org/record/5032970
{"references":["Verrill A. E. 1894. Descriptions of new species of starfishes and ophiurans, with a revision of certain species formerly described; mostly from the collections made by the United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries. Proceedings of the United States National Museum 17 (1000): 245 - 297. https: // doi. org / 10.5479 / si. 00963801.1000.245"]}