The Echinoid Directory

Glossaster Lambert, 1918, p. 39

Diagnostic Features	Test small, low, elongate oval; broader posteriorly. Adoral surface a little depressed saggitally. Apical system monobasal with four gonopores. Petals short, lanceolate, closing distally; the anterior petal longest. Ambulacra plates beyond petals single pored. Periproct supramarginal, trigonal; opening into a short sulcus with subanal shelf. Peristome small, subpentagonal, anterior. Well developed bourrelets forming small nodes around the peristome. Phyllodes widened, detailed structure unknown. naked medial zone adorally.
Distribution	Lower to Middle Eocene of France and Pakistan.
Name gender	masculine
Type	Cassidulus sorigneti Cotteau, 1887, p. 512, by original designation.
Species Included	G. sorigneti (Cotteau, 1887): Middle Eocene, France [=?G. vasseuri (Cotteau, 1887); Middle Eocene, France. ?=G. benedicti (Cotteau, 1887); Middle Eocene, France]. G. ellipticus (Duncan & Sladen, 1882); Lower Eocene, Pakistan.
Classification and/or Status	Irregularia; Cassiduloida; Cassidulidae.
Remarks	Kier (1962) remarks that Lambert established Glossaster as a subgenus of Procassidulus, differentiating it from the latter by its subtriangular periproct. However, Kier (1962) believes that this is not of sufficient importance to warrant subgeneric distinction, as the shape of the periproct is quite variable within the species of Cassidulus. P. M. Kier. 1962. Revision of the cassiduloid echinoids. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 144 (3) 262 pp. Lambert, J. 1918. Considérations sur la classification des échinides atelostomes. Mémoires de la Société académique de l’Aube, (3) 82, 9-54.