Diploporita

Reconstruction of Asteroblastus volborthi by Ernst Haeckel, Kunstformen der Natur, 1899-1904.

Belongs within: Blastozoa.
Contains: Aristocystitidae, Sphaeronitidae, Glyptosphaeritida.

The Diploporita are a Lower Ordovician to Lower Devonian group of echinoderms in which the thecal plates bear pore groups each located on a single plate.

Characters (from Kesling 1967): Thecal pores developed as units mostly confined to single plates, typically in form of diplopores but in some present as haplopores.

<==Diploporita [Diploporitidae, Gemellipora]
    |--Sphaeronitida [Sphaeronita] K67
    |    |--Aristocystitidae K67
    |    `--Sphaeronitidae K67
    `--+--Glyptosphaeritida K67
       `--Asteroblastida [Asterocystida] K67
            |--Mesocystis Bather 1898 (see below for synonymy) K67
            |    |--*M. pusirefskii (Hoffman 1866) (see below for synonymy) K67
            |    `--M. jaekeli K67
            `--Asteroblastidae [Asterocystidae] K67
                 |--Metasterocystis Jaekel 1918 K67
                 |    `--*M. micropelta Jaekel 1918 K67
                 |--Asterocystis Heackel 1896 K67
                 |    |--*A. tuberculatus (Schmidt 1874) [=Asteroblastus tuberculatus] K67
                 |    `--A. globula Jaekel 1918 K67 , J18 [=A. globulus K67]
                 `--Asteroblastus Eichwald 1862 K67
                      |--A. foveolatus (Eichwald 1860) (see below for synonymy) K67
                      |--A. regularis Jaekel 1918 J18
                      |--A. stellatus K67
                      |--A. sublaevis K67
                      `--A. volborthi K67

Asteroblastus foveolatus (Eichwald 1860) [=Protocrinites foveolatus; incl. *A. stellatus Eichwald 1862] K67

Mesocystis Bather 1898 [=Mesites Hoffman 1866 nec Schönherr 1838 nec Geoffroy-St. Hilaire 1838 nec Jenyns 1842; Mesocystidae] K67

*Mesocystis pusirefskii (Hoffman 1866) [=*Mesites pusirefskii, Agelacrinus pusyrewskii, Mesocystis pusireffskyi, Mesocystis pusirefski, Mesocystis pusirewskii] K67

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[J18] Jaekel, O. 1918. Phylogenie und System der Pelmatozoen. Paläontologische Zeitschrift 3: 1-128.

[K67] Kesling, R. V. 1967. Cystoids. In Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology pt. S. Echinodermata 1. General characters. Homalozoa-Crinozoa (except Crinoidea) (R. C. Moore, ed.) vol. 1 pp. S85-S267. The Geological Society of America, Inc., and The University of Kansas: Lawrence (Kansas).