The Echinoid Directory

Granopatagus Lambert, 1915, p. 193

[=Concophorus Laube, 1869, p. 36 (objective); = Conchophorus Duncan, 1889, p. 252 =Lonchophorus Pomel, 1883, p. 29, non Germar, 1824 ]

Diagnostic Features	Test cordate with marked anterior sulcus. Apical disc ethmolytic; with madreporic plate extending well to rear of posterior oculars. Anterior ambulacrum narrow with small simple isopores; deepening to ambitus. No funnel-building tube-feet. Other ambulacra petaloid and flush. Anterior paired petals bowed; upper half of anterior column with rudimentary pore-pairs only. Other pore-pairs large and conjugate. Posterior petals bowed. Petals closed distally. Extending about two-thirds of the distance to the ambitus. Periproct on short posterior face. Peristome wider than long; kidney-shaped, with slightly projecting labrum. Labral plate anvil-shaped; in broad contact with sternal plates; not extending beyond ambulacral plate 1. Paired sternal plates long and fully tuberculate. Plastron formed of sternals and episternals; episternals not contracting towards posterior. Aboral tuberculation fine and uniform except adjacent to frontal groove where larger tubercles are found on the inner sloping margins. Well-developed subanal fasciole; bilobed. No other fascioles.
Distribution	Eocene, Italy; Pliocene to Recent, Mediterranean, East Pacific.
Name gender	masculine
Type	Spatangus lonchophorus Meneghini in Desor, 1858, p. 422, by original designation.
Species Included	G. lonchophorus (Meneghini, in Desor, 1858); Eocene, Italy. G. subinermis (Pomel, 1883); Pliocene, North Africa. G. inermis Mortensen, 1913; Recent, Mediterranean. G. paucituberculatus (Agassiz & Clark, 1907); Recent, Hawaii.
Classification and/or Status	Spatangoida, Micrasterina, Spatangidae. Presumed monophyletic.
Remarks	Lambert (1915) characterised this genus by having primary tubercles only bordering the anterior sulcus aborally, and in having no small protruberances in front of the peristome. Mortensen (1951, p. 19) accepted it as a valid subgenus. Very similar to Spatangus, but lacking aboral primary tubercles in the interambulacral zones. Lambert, J. 1915. 1910. Description des échinides des terrains néogène du Basin du Rhône. Mémoires de la Société paléontologique Suisse, 41, 153-240, pls 13-16. Mortensen, T. 1951. A monograph of the Echinoidea. V.2. Spatangoida. C. A. Reitzel, Copenhagen.