Hemieuryalidae Verrill, 1899

Gondim, Anne Isabelley, Dias, Thelma Lúcia Pereira, Christoffersen, Martin Lindsey & Stöhr, Sabine, 2015, Redescription of Hemieuryale pustulata von Martens, 1867 (Echinodermata, Ophiuroidea) based on Brazilian specimens, with notes on systematics and habitat association, Zootaxa 3925 (3), pp. 341-360 : 343-344

Family Hemieuryalidae Verrill, 1899

Hemieuryalidae Verrill 1899a: 70 ; 1899b: 363.― H.L. Clark 1915: 190.― Matsumoto 1915: 62, 65–66; 1917: 138–140.―A.H.

Clark 1921: 52.― Hyman 1955: 647.― Fell 1960: 12 (key).― Murakami 1963: 11–12, 40.― Tommasi 1970: 15.―Bernasconi & D’Agostino 1971: 455; 1977: 73.― Abreu-Pérez 1990: 3.― Hendler et al. 1995: 142.― Kutscher & Villier 2003: 189.― O’Hara & Stöhr 2006: 119.― Laguarda-Figueras et al. 2009: 172, fig. 68a–d.― Martynov 2010: 30, 44, 125.― Barboza & Borges 2012: 5.

Type genus. Hemieuryale von Martens, 1867.

Diagnosis (modified from Verrill 1899a and Martynov 2010). Disc pentagonal, covered by thick plates. Radial shields large. Dorsal arm plates entire or replaced by a mosaic of small plates, accompanied by accessory dorsal arm plate. Lateral arm plates separated by accessory plates. A row of oral papillae. Bursal slits small, placed near margins of oral shields. Arm spines short and few. Spine articulation composed of two parallel ridges placed at an angle to each other.

Remarks. According to Verrill (1899a) this family has strongly calcified jaw plates and its species are very similar, in shape and habitus, to species of Euryalida Lamarck, 1816 with simple arms. Its representatives live associated with calcareous hydrocorals and octocorals. Species are distributed from Hawaii and California ( USA) to the Caribbean Sea. The present study expands this distribution range to the Brazilian coast (up to 18ºS). Species occur between depths of 4 and 500 m ( Koehler 1914; Hendler et al. 1995).

The first fossil record of a member of the Hemieuryalidae dates from the Early Jurassic ( Smith et al. 1995). Presently only one fossil species is known from the family, which belongs to the genus Hemieuryale ( H. parva Kutscher & Jagt, 2000 † —from Lower Maastrichtian, Late Cretaceous). Thuy (2013) recently transferred the fossil species Sigsbeia lunaris ( Hess, 1962) † (from Late Pliensbachian, Early Jurassic) to the extinct genus Inexpectacantha Thuy 2011 † ( Ophiacanthidae ).