Ophiopezidae, O'Hara, Stohr, 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 : 15

Family Ophiopezidae fam. nov. urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:5CB2AA19-60FA-4483-A659-998AF13B3E55

Type genus

Ophiopeza Peters, 1851 (type species: O. fallax Peters, 1851 ).

Other genera

Ophiochaeta Lütken, 1869 .

Diagnosis

Dorsal disc covered with granules ( Ophiopeza ) or needle-like spines ( Ophiochaeta ). Dental plate entire, with coarsely porous stereom, tooth sockets as small, not penetrating holes with indistinct borders, on the ventral end a pair of sockets. Arm spine articulation with swollen dorsal lobe and thin ventral lobe, well defined sigmoidal fold. Lateral arm plates with conspicuous ornamentation (tubercles of variable size in Ophiopeza ).