Ophiopteridae, O'Hara, Stöhr, Hugall, Thuy & Martynov, 2018

Stöhr, Sabine, Hugall, Andrew F., Thuy, Ben & Martynov, Alexander, 2018, Morphological diagnoses of higher taxa in Ophiuroidea (Echinodermata) in support of a new classification, European Journal of Taxonomy 416, pp. 1-35 : 13

Family Ophiopteridae fam. nov. urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:28D7ECF8-2D03-4F4B-874B-8D998E39561D

Type genus

Ophiopteris E.A. Smith, 1877 (type species: O. antipodum E.A. Smith, 1877 ).

Diagnosis

Dorsal disc with dense cover of low granules, obscuring scales and plates. Ventral disc with short spines. Several small, conical lateral oral papillae. Long, smooth, cylindrical, erect arm spines, the two dorsalmost small, scale-like. Several columns of small papilliform teeth all over dental plate, no regular teeth. Dental plate entire. Tooth sockets on dental plate without foramina and teeth without glassy tips ( Devaney 1970). Arm spine articulation lobes merged, with proximal and dorsal swellings, nerve and muscle openings widely separated.