Marginaster Perrier 1881

Mah, Christopher L., 2023, New occurrence of Poraniidae (Valvatacea, Asteroidea) in Australia with a new genus and species from deep-sea settings, Memoirs of Museum Victoria 82, pp. 119-131 : 124

publication ID

https://doi.org/ 10.24199/j.mmv.2023.82.06

publication LSID

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:B48A3062-C822-4DD1-ADCC-A577C9D2CD32

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/03E33A5A-FFE3-1366-FCE0-FF56FDE3FE8F

treatment provided by

Felipe

scientific name

Marginaster Perrier 1881
status

 

Marginaster Perrier 1881 View in CoL

Marginaster Perrier 1881: 16 View in CoL .— 1884: 229.— Sladen 1889: 364.— Perrier 1894: 164–165.— Ludwig 1897: 189.— Verrill 1914: 18–19.— 1915: 75–76.— Downey 1973: 82.— Clark 1984: 25–27.— McKnight 2006: 106.

Cheilaster Bell 1893: 81 View in CoL (superfluous replacement name for Marginaster Perrier View in CoL )

Poranisca Verrill 1914: 19 View in CoL .— Clark 1984: 25 [type: P. lepidus Verrill 1914 View in CoL ]

Marginaster sp. McKnight 1968: 513.— Clark 1970: 5.— Clark and McKnight 2001: 166.

Type Species. Marginaster paucispinus Fisher 1913 (by subsequent designation)

Diagnostic comments. Marginaster has historically been considered a “provisional genus” ( Clark and Downey, 1992: 205), and as such most recent diagnoses ( Clark and Downey, 1992; McKnight, 2006) have been brief and incomplete. This account disagrees with prior accounts that assume Marginaster is a juvenile of other poraniid taxa, and as such, attempts to incorporate characters from known species, exclusive of Marginaster (now Bathymarginaster ) patriciae and the asterinid Marginaster (now Patiriella ) littoralis Dartnall 1970.

Diagnosis. Body small, R <2.5 cm, overall shape pentagonal to weakly stellate ( R /r=1.4–2.0). Body covered by variably thickened dermis, ranging from relatively thin ( Fig. 2a) to very thick and fleshy ( Fig. 2e, f). Abactinal plates reticulate, forming widely open papular regions between rod-like ossicles ( Fig. 2a, c, d). Plates variably with pointed, conical spinelets. Marginal plates wide, dorsal-facing, forming broad periphery ( Fig. 2a, c, d), each plate series bearing 2 –6 short spinelets. Inferomarginal spinelets flattened, larger than those on superomarginal plates. Actinal plates imbricate, tissue covered, relatively few overall ( Fig. 2b, d, f). One to three short, pointed furrow spines. One to three subambulacral spines.

Comments. Marginaster Perrier 1881 has been met with skepticism throughout its taxonomic history, beginning with Verrill (1914) and later with Downey (1973) and Clark and Downey (1992), who argued Marginaster is the juvenile or small form of a larger, possibly unknown, poraniid. Mah and Foltz (2014) argued that Marginaster is a separate but smallsized taxon, and that none of the North Atlantic genera or any of the known Southern Hemisphere poraniidae, such as Glabraster at comparable sizes, were morphologically consistent with Marginaster . No other known poraniids are distributed with a comparably occurring geographic and/or bathymetric distribution (Mah, unpublished data), making it seem unlikely that Marginaster is the juvenile form of some other Poraniidae .

Including B. patriciae View in CoL , addressed herein, there are four known species: Marginaster capreensis ( Gasco, 1876) View in CoL , M. paucispinus Fisher 1913 View in CoL , and M. pectinatus Perrier, 1881 View in CoL . Marginaster capreensis View in CoL and M. pectinatus View in CoL occur in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, whereas M. paucispinus View in CoL occurs in the Pacific and the Indian Ocean ( Reunion Island). Although a comprehensive generic review is beyond the scope of the present study, cursory examination suggests relatively few character differences among species, particularly of inferomarginal spine number and marginal plate number, expression of the reticulate abactinal skeleton and abactinal spination.

R

Departamento de Geologia, Universidad de Chile

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Echinodermata

Class

Asteroidea

Order

Valvatida

Family

Poraniidae

Loc

Marginaster Perrier 1881

Mah, Christopher L. 2023
2023
Loc

Marginaster sp.

Clark, H. E. S. & McKnight, D. G. 2001: 166
Clark, H. E. S. 1970: 5
McKnight, D. C. 1968: 513
1968
Loc

Poranisca

Clark, A. M. 1984: 25
Verrill, A. E. 1914: 19
1914
Loc

Cheilaster

Bell, F. J. 1893: 81
1893
Loc

Marginaster

McKnight, D. C. 2006: 106
Clark, A. M. 1984: 25
Downey, M. E. 1973: 82
Verrill, A. E. 1915: 75
Verrill, A. E. 1914: 18
Ludwig, H. 1897: 189
Perrier, E. 1894: 164
Sladen, W. P. 1889: 364
Perrier, E. 1884: 229
Perrier, E. 1881: 16
1881
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