Family CAYMANOSTELLIDAE
Compiler and date details
July 2012 - Tim O’Hara, Museum Victoria
F.W.E. Rowe & J. Gates, Australian Museum, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia (1995) Updated (2001) by Tim O'Hara, Museum Victoria, Carlton, Victoria, Australia
Introduction
The family Caymanostellidae is circum-tropical to temperate in distribution. Two genera and four species are known. Both genera are recorded in Australian waters, each represented by a single species.
The family is distinguished from others in the order Valvatida by the following combination of character states: body pentagonal to sub-circular in outline, slightly convex aborally, with imbricating plates, body may be invested in thick skin; inferomarginal plates delimit body margin; actino-lateral plates absent in Recent taxa; adambulacral plates characteristically bar-like, extending between ambulacral and inferomarginal plates; membranous triangular 'window' occurs actinally with or without spicules and through which gonads can be seen internally; sexually dimorphic, male gonopores smaller than female gonopores; the gonopores associated either through, marginally or between proximal-most pair of superomarginal plates in interradial angle; skeletal plates bear granuliform to elongate spinelets, inferomarginal plates bear stouter spines forming marginal fringe to body.
General References
Belyaev, G.M. 1974. A new family of abyssal starfishes. Zoologicheskii Zhurnal 53(10): 1502-1508
Rowe, F.W.E. 1989. A review of the family Caymanostellidae (Echinodermata: Asteroidea) with the description of a new species of Caymanostella Belyaev and a new genus. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 111(4): 293-307 7 figs 1 table
History of changes
| Published | As part of group | Action Date | Action Type | Compiler(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12-Feb-2012 | 12-Feb-2012 | MOVED | ||
| 12-Feb-2010 | (import) |