Ophiactidae

Savigny's brittle star Ophiactis savignyi, copyright Moorea Biocode.

Belongs within: Gnathophiurina.

The Ophiactidae are a family of brittle stars in which the disc bears a covering of granules or spinules.

Characters (from Spencer & Wright 1966): Arms slender, commonly constricted at nodes. Disc with granules or spinules. Jaws with lateral oral papillae separated by gap from dissimilar infradental papillae at apex.

Ophiactidae [Ophiactinae]
    |--Histampica duplicata (Lyman 1874) MG-H11
    |--Ophiopus Ljungman 1866 [incl. Ophiaregma Sars 1872] SW66
    |    `--*O. arcticus Ljungman 1866 SW66
    |--Hemipholis Lyman 1865 SW66
    |    |--*H. elongata (Say 1825) [=Ophiura elongata] SW66
    |    `--H. cordifera H04
    |--Ophiopholis Müller & Troschel 1840 SW66
    |    |--O. aculeata (Retzius 1783) (see below for synonymy) SW66
    |    `--O. japonica H04
    `--Ophiactis Lütken 1856 [incl. Amphiactis Matsumoto 1915] SW66
         |--*O. savignyi (Müller & Troschel 1842) [=Ophiolepis savignyi; incl. *Ophiactis krebsii Lütken 1856] SW66
         |--O. abyssicola BK77
         |--O. balli BK77
         |--O. brevis Clark 1938 MG-H11
         |--O. hirta Lyman 1879 MG-H11
         |--O. macrolepidota Marktanner-Turneretscher 1887 MG-H11
         |--O. modesta Brock 1888 MG-H11
         |--O. nidarosiensis BK77
         `--O. profundi Lütken & Mortensen 1899 MG-H11

Ophiopholis aculeata (Retzius 1783) [=Asterias aculeatus; incl. Ophiolepis scolopendrica Müller & Troschel 1840, *Ophiopholis scolopendrica] SW66

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[BK77] Barel, C. D. N., & P. G. N. Kramers. 1977. A survey of the echinoderm associates of the north-east Atlantic area. Zoologische Verhandelingen 156: 1–159.

[H04] Haeckel, E. 1899–1904. Kunstformen der Natur. Bibliographisches Institut: Leipzig und Wien.

[MG-H11] McEnnulty, F. R., K. L. Gowlett-Holmes, A. Williams, F. Althaus, J. Fromont, G. C. B. Poore, T. D. O’Hara, L. Marsh, P. Kott, S. Slack-Smith, P. Alderslade & M. V. Kitahara. 2011. The deepwater megabenthic invertebrates on the western continental margin of Australia (100–1100 m depths): composition, distribution and novelty. Records of the Western Australian Museum Supplement 80: 1–191.

[SW66] Spencer, W. K., & C. W. Wright. 1966. Asterozoans. In: Moore, R. C. (ed.) Treatise on invertebrate Paleontology pt U. Echinodermata 3 vol. 1 pp. U4–U107. The Geological Society of America, Inc., and The University of Kansas Press.