Endoxocrinus A.H. Clark, 1908

David, Jerome, Roux, Michel, Messing, Charles G. & Ameziane, Nadia, 2006, Revision of the pentacrinid stalked crinoids of the genus Endoxocrinus (Echinodermata, Crinoidea), with a study of environmental control of characters and its consequences for taxonomy, Zootaxa 1156, pp. 1-50 : 33-34

Subgenus Endoxocrinus A.H. Clark, 1908

Type species of the subgenus: Encrinus parrae Gervais (in Guerin, 1835).

Synonymy: Endoxocrinus A.H. Clark, 1908b: 151 , and 1923: 10; Diplocrinus (Endoxocrinus) Roux, 1978 : A9 (unpublished data) and 1981: 481; Endoxocrinus (Endoxocrinus) David, 1998: 202 (unpublished data) and Roux et al., 2002: 820.

Diagnosis

A subgenus of Endoxocrinus with IIBr series from 1 to 4 brachials, usually 2; IIIBr to VBr from 1 to 5 brachials, exceptionally up to 7; usually more frequently 3 than 2 in IIIBr, mainly 3 in IVBr and VBr; number of internodals per mature noditaxis 3 to 16; rarely a distal callus at end of stalk; number of cirrals per cirrus 25 to 43 (mode usually>30); proximal cirri perpendicular to stalk or oriented downward.

Monospecific

Endoxocrinus parrae [Gervais (in Guérin, 1835)] sensu lato (= Pentacrinus mülleri Oersted, 1857 ; = Diplocrinus carolinae A.H. Clark, 1934 ; = Endoxocrinus prionodes H.L. Clark, 1941 ).

Remarks

The original specimen of E. parrae is lost. It was originally briefly described and illustrated as “Palma animal” by Parra (1787). Gervais (in Guérin 1835, Pl. 147, fig.1) translated Parra’s description, reproduced his figure, and renamed it Encrinus parrae . A.H. Clark (1908a) considered it to be the same species as Pentacrinus mülleri , described by Oërsted (1857) and finely figured by Lütken (1865). A.H. Clark (1908b) subsequently designated Encrinus parrae as the type species of the genus Endoxocrinus . However, Roux (1978, 1981) and David (1998) thought that Parra’s specimen was too poorly described and figured to identify it with Oërsted’s P. m ü l l e r i. So, Roux (1978, 1981) gave priority to the genus Diplocrinus ( Döderlein 1912) , treating it sensu lato to include Endoxocrinus , Diplocrinus and Annacrinus sensu Clark (1923) . David (1998) considered parrae as invalid and designated Pentacrinus mülleri Oërsted as the new type species of the genus Endoxocrinus , an arrangement followed by Roux et al. (2002). However, the strongly endotomous arm branching of Oërsted’s specimen was not conspicuous in Parra’s specimen, which may have been morphologically intermediate between mülleri and prionodes ; both of which occur in the type locality off Cuba.

In the face of this confusion, and in order to maintain the species name parrae , which has seen broad use in modern ecological and taphonomic studies (e.g., Meyer et al. 1978; Messing 1985, 1994a; Messing and Llewellyn 1991; Llewellyn and Messing 1993; Oji 1996; Baumiller and Rome 1998; Featherstone et al. 1998), we here designate Oërsted’s specimen of Pentacrinus mülleri as the neotype of E. parrae . Consequently, mülleri becomes a junior objective synonym of parrae , and the genus Endoxocrinus remains valid.