Astrophiuridae Sladen, 1879a

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 : 9

Family Astrophiuridae Sladen, 1879a

Type genus

Astrophiura Sladen, 1879a (Type species: A. permira Sladen, 1879b ).

Other genera

Ophiomisidium Koehler, 1914 , Ophiophycis Koehler, 1901 .

Diagnosis

Dorsal disc composed of very obvious primary plates, interradial plates and radial shields, few or no disc scales. Single apical ventralmost tooth. No genital papillae, no arm combs. Strongly paedomorphic genera with reduced skeleton; Astrophiura with highly modified lateral arm plates on proximal joints. Arm spine articulation as simple muscle opening, bordered by thickened stereom, nerve opening reduced.