Knightaster, H. E. S. Clark, 1972

Mah, Christopher L. & Fujita, Toshihiko, 2020, New species and occurrence records of Japanese Solasteridae and Ganeriidae including a new species of Paralophaster from the North Pacific with an overview of Hyalinothrix, Zootaxa 4750 (1), pp. 67-100 : 83

What is Knightaster ?

Based on the description outlined for Knightaster bakeri by H. E. S. Clark (1972) and H. E. S. Clark & McKnight (2001) and compared with details summarized by O’Loughlin & Waters (2004), several relevant characters suggest its membership should be ascribed to the Asterinidae . Clark (1972) proposed affinities with several ganeriid genera, such as Cycethra , but provided no characters for these relationships.

Based on Clark’s (1972) description, Knightaster lacks paxillae, which are present in the other Hyalinothricinae, and has a surface with flattened, spine-bearing abactinal plates arranged into an irregular reticulum rather than imbricate plates forming a series of single regular papular pore openings. Knightaster displays several character similarities asterinids which are narrow at the base of the arm, elongate and sub cylindrical in cross-section, such as Nepanthia or Pseudonepanthia . Considering the complexity of the asterinids, it is beyond the scope of this study to further reconcile Knightaster without evaluation and comparison within the Asterinidae .