Australian Biological Resources Study

Australian Faunal Directory

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Family OPHIACANTHIDAE


Compiler and date details

2012 - Tim O'Hara, Museum Victoria, Carlton, Victoria, Australia

2001 - Tim O'Hara, Museum Victoria, Carlton, Victoria, Australia

1995 - F.W.E. Rowe & J. Gates, Australian Museum, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Introduction

The Ophiacanthidae are a large cosmopolitan family containing 35 extant genera and 319 species.

Ophiacanthids are distinguished from other ophiurid families by the following combination of character states: arms slender, commonly constricted at nodes; dorsal and ventral arm plates very small; arm spines long, numerous, not adpressed, commonly glassy and serrate; disc with granules and spinules; apex of jaw with a simple pointed apical papilla with several oral papillae on either side.

 

Excluded Taxa

Misidentifications

OPHIACANTHIDAE: Ophiogyptis nodosa Koehler, 1905 [= Ophiomoeris nodosa (Koehler, 1905). Original publication: Koehler, R. 1905. Ophiures littorales. Siboga Expéditie Monographie 45(b): 1-142, pls 1-18 [121, pl. 12(11-14)]. Type data: Syntype(s) ZMA E2408-E2409 4 specimens, North of Nuhu Jaan, Kei Is., Solor Strait, Kampong Menanga and 8º30´S 119º7´30˜E, Indo-Malay Archipelago] — Rowe, F.W.E. 1989. Nine new deep-water species of Echinodermata from Norfolk Island and Wanganella Bank, northeastern Tasman Sea, with a checklist of the echinoderm fauna. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 111(4): 257-291 12 figs 1 table [286] (new record for Norfolk Island); Rowe, F.W.E. & Gates, J. 1995. Zoological Catalogue of Australia. Vol. 33 Echinodermata. Melbourne : CSIRO Australia 510 pp. [369] (listed the species from Norfolk Island under the family Hemieuryalidae); O'Hara, T.D. & Stöhr, S. 2006. Deep water Ophiuroidea (Echinodermata) of New Caledonia: Ophiacanthidae and Hemieuryalidae. Tropical Deep Sea Benthos 193: 33-141 (re-identifed as Ophiomoeris obstricta)

OPHIACANTHIDAE: Ophioprium H.L. Clark, 1915 [Ophioprium is from the Caribbean, and now in the family Ophiomyxidae] — Rowe, F.W.E. & Gates, J. 1995. Zoological Catalogue of Australia. Vol. 33 Echinodermata. Melbourne : CSIRO Australia 510 pp. [376] (listed two species in the genus Ophioprium, however, the species have been moved to the genus Ophiotreta)

 

History of changes

Note that this list may be incomplete for dates prior to September 2013.
Published As part of group Action Date Action Type Compiler(s)
15-Sep-2023 ECHINODERMATA 15-Sep-2023 MODIFIED Nish Nizar (NMV)
15-Sep-2023 OPHIUROIDEA 09-Aug-2023 MODIFIED
15-Sep-2023 OPHIURIDA 15-Sep-2023 MODIFIED
15-Sep-2023 15-Sep-2023 MODIFIED
12-Feb-2010 (import)