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The Echinoid Directory

Pseudopygaulus Coquand, 1862, p. 274, legend to plate 31.

[=Eolampas Duncan & Sladen, 1882, p. 61, type species Eolampas antecursor Duncan & Sladen, 1882; =Ottiliaster Penecke, 1885, p. 350, type species Ottiliaster pusillus Penecke, 1885; =Petalaster Cotteau, 1885, p. 330, type species Petalaster maresi Cotteau, 1885
]

Diagnostic Features
  • Test relatively small (~ 25 mm), ovate in outline, inflated, with a rounded anterior margin and slightly point posterior margin.
  • Apical system anterior, monobasal, with four gonopores.
  • Ambulacrum III non-petaloid, other ambulacra petaloid with broad petals, typically closed, with conjugate pores. Ambulacral plates beyond petals with single pores.
  • Peristome slightly anterior, transverse, oval.
  • Periproct marginal to inframarginal, transverse, oval to subtriangular.
  • Bourrelets absent, peristome with very short vertical-walled entrance.
  • Phyllodes simple, single pored, with a single series in each half-ambulacrum. Small external demiplates present in each phyllode distally.
  • Buccal pores present.
Distribution
  • Upper Cretaceous (Senonian) to Eocene of Austria, Madagascar, North Africa, Oman, India and Pakistan.
Name gender masculine
Type
Catopygus trigeri Coquand, 1862, p. 274; by monotypy.
Species Included
  • P. antecursor (Duncan & Sladen, 1882); Eocene, Pakistan.
  • P. excentricus (Duncan & Sladen, 1882); Eocene, Pakistan.
  • P. maresi (Cotteau, 1885); Tunisia, reportedly Senonian but age needs confirming.
  • P. trigeri (Coquand, 1862); Upper Eocene, Tunisia, Oman.
  • P. pusillus (Penecke, 1885); Eocene, Austria.
Classification and/or Status
Irregularia; Neognathostomata; Plesiolampadidae.
Remarks

Pseudopygaulus is similar to Termieria in having broad petals, an oval peristome, a transverse and inframarginal periproct, and phyllodes with few pores (Kier, 1962, p. 219). Pseudopygaulus is distinguished from Termieria by its non-petaloid ambulacrum III. The presence of an oval peristome, with no bourrelets and very simple phyllodes that have small external occluded plates indicates that these genera are closely related to the Oligopygidae and do not belong among the pliolampadids as suggested by Kier (1962).

There has been considerable controversy over the validity of this genus as Coquand did not name the genus in his text, but called the type species Catopygus trigeri. However, Kier (1962, p. 219) states that Coquand referred to the species as Pseudopygaulus trigeri in his plate explanation. Kier (1962) argues that Coquand\'s Pseudopygaulus cannot be a nomen nudum (as suggested by Lambert & Thiery, 1909-1925), as the name was published and accompanied with illustrations.

Coquand, H. 1862. Géologie et paléontologie de la région sud de la Province de Constantine. Mémoires de la Société d’Émulation de la Provence, 2, 5-342.

P. M. Kier. 1962. Revision of the cassiduloid echinoids. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 144, (3), 262 pp.

J. Lambert & P. Thiery. 1909-1925. Essai de nomenclature raisonnee des echinides. Libraire Septime Ferriere, Chaumont, 607 pp., 15 pls.