Cyathidium foresti Cherbonnier & Guille, 1972

Madeira, Patrícia, Kroh, Andreas, Cordeiro, Ricardo, De, António M., Martins, Frias & Ávila, Sérgio P., 2019, The Echinoderm Fauna of the Azores (NE Atlantic Ocean), Zootaxa 4639 (1), pp. 1-231 : 18

Cyathidium foresti Cherbonnier & Guille, 1972

Reports for the Azores:

Cyathidium foresti $ Cherbonnier & Guille, 1972: 2193–2196 , pl. 1, figs. A–I; A.M. Clark 1980: 209; $ Heinzeller et al. 1997: 11–21, figs. 1–7; $ Améziane et al. 1999: 441–448, figs. 1–3; $ Wisshak et al. 2009a: 77–83, figs. 1–4, 2010: 2382.

Type locality: Azores (39°23’30″N, 31°19’00″W) .

See: Cherbonnier & Guille (1972); Heinzeller & Fechter (1995, as Cyathidium meteorensis ); Améziane et al. (1999).

Occurrence: Northeast Atlantic, known only from the Azores and the Great Meteor Seamount ( Améziane et al. 1999).

Depth: 380–900 (?1,140) m ( AZO; Cherbonnier & Guille 1972, Wisshak et al. 2009a).

Habitat: attached on hard substrata (e.g., basalt) or skeletal remains, such as deep-water oysters ( Neopycnodonte zibrowii Gofas et al. , in Wisshak et al., 2009b) ( Cherbonnier & Guille 1972; Wisshak et al. 2009a).

Larval stage: direct, produces a ‘cyathidula’ type of larvae ( Heinzeller et al. 1997).

Remarks: Cherbonnier & Guille (1972) described a new enigmatic echinoderm species found among the material collected by Jean-Charcot in the Azores (39°30’N– 36°54’N, 31°15’W– 25°09’W, 380–900 m). Overall, this species resemble more a barnacle than a crinoid, with no stalk, permanently attached to the hard substrata via an expanded aboral base of the calyx. The body is reduced to a rounded cone, with the first brachial series forming a pentagonal vault enclosing reduced arms when coiled inwards. Cherbonnier & Guille (1972) concluded that the affinity of their new species lay within Cyathidium Steenstrup, 1847 . At the time, this genus was composed exclusively of fossil species, most thought to be extinct by the end of the Cretaceous. Since the publication by Cherbonnier & Guille (1972), three more extant species were described for the genus, although C. meteorensis described by Fechter (1973) from the Great Meteor Seamount was later found to be identical with C. foresti (A.M. Clark 1980, Heinzeller et al. 1997, Améziane et al. 1999). Additionally, in situ observations of C. foresti in the channel between Faial and Pico islands (420–500 m depth) by Wisshak et al. (2009a) gave further insight on this species’ ecology and associated ‘living fossil community’.