Aeropsidae is a family of
echinoderms belonging to the order
Spatangoida
The heart urchins or Spatangoida are an order of sea urchins.
Their body is a somewhat elongated oval in form, and is distinguished by the mouth being placed towards one end of the animal, and the anus towards the other. As a result, heart urchi ...
.
It contains one extant genus. There are also eight extinct genera, most of which fall in the subfamily Corasterinae.
History
Initially, a large number of genera were included on the basis of their apetaloid
ambulacra. This, however, resulted in the inclusion of a number of unrelated genera some of which are
holasteroid, and others that are
spatangoid
The heart urchins or Spatangoida are an order (biology), order of sea urchins.
Their body is a somewhat elongated oval in form, and is distinguished by the mouth being placed towards one end of the animal, and the anus towards the other. As a re ...
.
Later, Mortensen included just two genera - ''
Aceste
''Aceste'' is a genus of echinoderms belonging to the family Schizasteridae.
The genus has almost cosmopolitan distribution
In biogeography, cosmopolitan distribution is the term for the range of a taxon that extends across all or most of th ...
'' and ''
Aeropsis
''Aeropsis'' is a genus of sea urchins in the family Aeropsidae
Aeropsidae is a family of echinoderms belonging to the order Spatangoida. It contains one extant genus. There are also eight extinct genera, most of which fall in the subfamily Cor ...
''. The two forms are very different in test architecture. Aceste is now considered to be an apetaloid derivative of ''
Proraster
''Proraster'' is a genus of echinoderms belonging to the family Hemiasteridae
Hemiasteridae is a family of echinoderms belonging to the order Spatangoida
The heart urchins or Spatangoida are an order of sea urchins.
Their body is a somewha ...
'' and is nor believed to be closely related to Aeropsidae.
Genera
The following genera are recognised:
Subfamily Corasterinae
Lambert & Thiéry, 1924
* † ''
Coraster''
Cotteau, 1887
* † ''
Cordastrum''
Nisiyama, 1968
* † ''
Cottreaucorys''
Lambert, 1920
* † ''
Homoeaster''
Pomel, 1883
* † ''
Lambertiaster''
Gauthier, 1892
* † ''
Orthaster''
Moskvin, 1982
* † ''
Physaster''
Pomel, 1883
No subfamily
* ''
Aeropsis
''Aeropsis'' is a genus of sea urchins in the family Aeropsidae
Aeropsidae is a family of echinoderms belonging to the order Spatangoida. It contains one extant genus. There are also eight extinct genera, most of which fall in the subfamily Cor ...
''
Mortensen, 1907
* † ''
Sphenaster''
Jeffery, 1999 (Protaeropsis was suggested as an alternative by Doweld in 2016 as ''Sphenaster'' is a junior homonym of ''Sphenaster''
Wilcoxon, 1970, a fossil protist genus (Haptomonada).
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q3467019
Spatangoida
Echinoderm families