The Echinoid Directory

Aguayoaster Sanchez Roig, 1952, p. 10

[=Calzadaster Carrasco, 2005, p. 50, type species Calzadaster friasi Carrasco, 2005]

Diagnostic Features	Test ovate in outline with shallow anterior sulcus; flattened above and below with ambitus at about mid-height. Apical portion of test slightly extended. Apical disc ethmolytic with four gonopores; positioned close to anterior margin. Anterior ambulacrum mostly vertical; weakly depressed from apex to peristome. Pore-pairs small and uniserial. Petals parallel-sided and more or less straight; sunken. The anterior petals angled at slightly more than 180 degrees and extending to the ambitus. Posterior petals slightly longer and not reaching ambitus. Peristome large and D-shaped; downward-facing. Labral plate short and wide; sternal plates very large and triangular; episternal plates biserially offset. Periproct relatively large and towards top of steeply inclined posterior face. Peripetalous and latero-anal fascioles present; the combined fasciole passing inframarginally around the anterior.
Distribution	Middle to Upper Eocene, Caribbean.
Name gender	masculine
Type	Aguayoaster aguayoi, Sanchez Roig, 1952, p. 10, by original designation.
Species Included	A. aguayoi Sanchez Roig, 1952; Middle Eocene, Cuba, Jamaica [includes A. schickleri Donovan 2000 and A. nuevitasensis (Sanchez Roig, 1952)]
Classification and/or Status	Spatangoida, Paleopneustina, Schizasteridae Monotypic; Possibly a subjective junior synonym of Cestobrissus Lambert,1912
Remarks	The very characteristic shape of this species makes it readily recognizable. No other schizasterid has such an anterior apical disc and backwardly directed anterior petals. Zitt (1981) redescribed the two species and showed that they posessed a latero-anal fasciole. Zitt (1981) and Donovan (2000) both identified further species on the bases of very poorly preserved individuals that cannot be compared meaningfully. Cestobrissus Lambert, 1912 appears to be very similar in appearance, but unfortunately the plate architecture and detailed fasciole pattern of that taxon is unknown at present. When the type material is restudied it may prove to be a senior synonym of Aguayoaster. Zitt, J. 1981. Aguayoaster Sanchez Roig (Echinoidea) from Cuba. Casopis pro mineralogii a geologii 26, 273-284, pls 1-4. Donovan, S. K. 2000. Spatangoid echinoids from the Eocene of Jamaica. Journal of Paleontology 74, 654-661.