Boletín de la Sociedad Geológica Mexicana

Volumen 71, núm. 3, 2019, p. 819-830

http://dx.doi.org/10.18268/BSGM2019v71n3a11 

 

 

Short note

Clypeasteroids (Echinodermata: Echinoidea) From the Cretaceous In Mexico?

Alejandra Martínez-Melo

 

Colección Nacional de Paleontología, Instituto de Geología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Ciudad Universitaria. C.P. 04510, Ciudad de México, México.

UMR 7207, Centre de Recherche en Paléontologie - Paris, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle. 8 rue Buffon, CP 38, 75005 Paris, France.

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Abstract

It is currently considered that the origin of the order Clypeasteroida occurred during the Cretaceous, with the stem group that includes the families Faujasiidae, Plasiolampadidae, Conoclypeidae, and Oligopygidae. Nevertheless, there are taxonomic reports of Cretaceous echinoids from Mexico, which also include species of the Echinarachniidae and Mellitidae families. The present paper reviews and updates the records of the Cretaceous clypeasteroids in Mexico. Specimens belonging to the order Clypeasteroida were located in national and international collections, which also provided taxonomic and paleobiogeographic data. Three species, Hardouinia aequorea, Hardouinia potosiensis, and Phyllobrissus burckhardti, are illustrated and cataloged in two of the 11 genera in family Faujasiidae. The previous records of families Echinarachniidae and Mellitidae are incorrect, coinciding with the current hypothesis on the origin of the Clypeasteroida order. Invalid catalog numbers published for the type series of Encope michoacanensis were corrected according to the Colección Nacional de Paleontología database.

Keywords: Faujasiidae, Hardouinia aequorea, Hardouinia potosiensis, Phyllobrissus burckhardti, Encope michoacanensis.