The Echinoid Directory

• Test with sharp margin.
• Internal supports well developed as dense meshwork around periphery.
• Apical disc central with four gonopores.
• Petals well developed; short (about half radial length of test) and closed distally. All five petals similar in length.
• Ovate lunules or notches present in the posterior ambulacra.
• Interambulacral zones disjunct adorally; separated by enlarged first post-basicoronal ambulacral plates.
• Basicoronal circlet pentastellate with interambulacral plates forming the points.
• Periproct oral; opening bounded by first pair of post-basicoronal interambulacral plates; slightly removed from the margin.
• Food grooves bifurcate at edge of basicoronal plate; finer distal branches well developed.
• Ambulacra a little wider than interambulacra at ambitus.

Oligocene to Miocene, Southern Europe, North Africa, Middle East, India, Angola.

Scutella bioculata Desmoulins, 1835, by subsequent designation of Lambert 1907, p. 49.

• A. bioculata Desmoulins, 1835; Miocene, circum-Mediterranean
• A. lovisatoi Cotteau, 1895; Miocene (Burdigalian); Sardinia
• A. montezemoloi Lovisato, 1911; Miocene (Burdigalian-Langhian); Sardinia
• A. nuragica (Comaschi Caria, 1955); Late Oligocene (Chattian) to Miocene (Aquitanian), Sardinia

Clypeasteroida; Scutellina; Scutelliformes; Scutellidea; Astriclypeidae.

Possibly paraphyletic, by exclusion of Echinodiscus

The only other genus to have two posterior ambulacral lunules is Echinodiscus, and in that genus the lunules are narrow and slit-like, not ovate and its posterior petals are noticeably shorter than the anterior three petals. Kieria Mihaly, 1985, was established on the basis of three small and poorly preserved individuals (22 mm or less in length) showing posterior notches. In growth series of Amphiope the posterior lunules start as perradial notches and in the oldest species notches may continue throughout life. It is therefore likely that Mihaly`s material is simply juvenile Amphiope sp.

Stara & Borghi (2014) provide a detailed account of this genus and revise the Sardinian representatives. Stara & Sanciu (2014) discuss the broader differentiation of this genus from other members of the Astriclypeidae.

Agassiz, L. 1840. Catalogus systematicus Ectyporum Echinodermatum fossilium Musei Neocomiensis, secundum ordinem zoologicum dispositus; adjectis synonymis recentioribus, nec non stratis et locis in quibus reperiuntur. Sequuntur characteres diagnostici generum novorum vel minus cognitorum, 20 pp. Oliv. Petitpierre, Neuchâtel.

Mortensen, T. 1948. A Monograph of the Echinoidea IV.2 Clypeasteroida. C. A. Reitzel, Copenhagen.

Philippe, M. 1998. Les echinides miocenes du Bassin du Rhone: revision systematique. Nouvelles Archives du Museum d\'Histoire naturelle de Lyon, 36, 3-441, pls 1-26.

Stara, P. & Borghi, E. 2014. The echinoid genus Amphiope L. Agassiz, 1840 (Echinoidea, Astriclypeidae) in the Oligo-Miocene of Sardinia. Biodiversity Journal 5, 245-268.

Stara, P. & Sanciu, L. 2014. Analysis of some astriclypeids (Echinoidea Clypeasteroida). Biodiversity Journal 5, 291-358.