''Lemoneites'' is a genus of glyptocystitid, a group of extinct

blastozoa Blastozoa is a subphylum of extinct echinoderms characterized by the presence of specialized respiratory structures and brachiole plates used for feeding. It ranged from the Cambrian to the Permian. Biserial, triradiate, and pentaradiate ambulacra ...

echinoderm An echinoderm () is any animal of the phylum Echinodermata (), which includes starfish, brittle stars, sea urchins, sand dollars and sea cucumbers, as well as the sessile sea lilies or "stone lilies". While bilaterally symmetrical as ...

s, known from the

Ordovician The Ordovician ( ) is a geologic period and System (geology), system, the second of six periods of the Paleozoic Era (geology), Era, and the second of twelve periods of the Phanerozoic Eon (geology), Eon. The Ordovician spans 41.6 million years f ...

period. The genus was first described in 1969 by Rousseau H. Flower. It contains a single species, ''L. mirabilis'', known from fossils found in the lower part of the Scenic Drive Formation within the El Paso Group of the Franklin Mountains in

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

. The fossils are preserved as silica replacements etched in dolomite. The genus was originally described as an

aglaspidid Aglaspidida is an extinct order of marine arthropods known from fossils spanning the Middle Cambrian to the Upper Ordovician. Initially considered chelicerates, modern anatomical comparisons demonstrate that the aglaspidids cannot be accommodated ...

within its own family, Lemoneitidae. It was also described as a

xiphosura Xiphosura (; , in reference to its sword-like telson) is an order of arthropods related to arachnids. They are more commonly known as horseshoe crabs (a name applied more specifically to the only extant family, Horseshoe crab, Limulidae). They fir ...

n. Later, it would be assigned to the order

Strabopida Strabopidae is the only Family (biology), family of the order Strabopida, an extinct group of arthropods known from the Cambrian period. The order Strabopida contains three valid genera and one doubtful, ''Khankaspis'', ''Paleomerus'', ''Parapal ...

, but after a study, ''Lemoneites'' was classified as an echinoderm. The genus originally contained three additional species: ''L. ambiguus'', ''L. gomphocaudatus'', and ''L. simplex''. All three are now considered synonyms of ''L. mirabilis''.

Notes

References

Prehistoric echinoderm genera Ordovician echinoderms of North America Cystoidea Taxa named by Rousseau H. Flower {{echinoderm-stub