Cheiropteraster giganteus Stürtz 1890

By oilshale

• January 14, 2022

Taxonomy

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Echinodermata Klein 1754
Class: Ophiuroidae Gray 1840
Order: Oegophiurida Matsumoto, 1915
Family: Encrinasteridae Schuchert 1914
Genus: Cheiropteraster
Species: Cheiropteraster giganteus
Author Citation Stürtz 1890

Geological Time Scale

Eon: Phanerozoic
Era: Paleozoic
Period: Devonian
Sub Period: None
Epoch: Early
International Age: Emsian (early)

Stratigraphy

Hunsrück Slate Group
Kaub Formation

Provenance

Acquired by: Purchase/Trade

Dimensions

Length: 26 cm

Location

Eschenbach-Bocksberg Quarry
Bundenbach
Rheinland-Pfalz
Germany

• bundenbach
• cheiropteraster
• devonian
• emsian
• kaub formation
• tff-oilshale-ec1843

Comments

Cheiropteraster giganteus reached diameters up to 50 cm / 20”.
Taxonomy from BioLib.cz.
From Südcamp 2017, p. 132: “Cheiropteraster is a very large ophiuroid with no disc, but a granulated skin reaching the tips of the five arms. The mouth is extremely large and V-shaped reaching up to the fifth ambulacral pairs. The elongated ambulacrals stand out as a topographic high and form alternating half-cylinders. Orally, they are boot-shaped. The laterals are T-shaped and bear long spines along the edge.”

Identified by oilshale using Südcamp 2017.

References:
Stürtz, B. (1890) Neuer Beitrag zur Kenntnis paläozoischer Seesterne. Palaeontographica 36:203-247.
Spencer, W. K. (1934) A monograph of the British Palaeozoic Asterozoa. Monograph of the Palaeontographical Society 1933(9):437-494.
Lehmann W.M. (1957) Die Asterozoen in den Dachschiefern des rheinischen Unterdevons., Abhandlungen des Hessischen Landesamtes für Bodenforschung 21, 1-160.
Spencer, W. K. and Wright, C.W. (1966) Asterozoans. Moore R.C. ed, Treatise on invertebrate paleontology, Echinodermata, University of Kansas Press and the Geological Society of America 3(1):U4-U107
Südkamp, W. (2017) Life in the Devonian. Identification book Hunsrück Slate fossils. Verlag Dr. Friedrich Pfeil. München 2017. ISBN978-3-89937-221-2.