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Valettaster ocellatus

Asteroidea - Valvatida - Sphaerasteridae

Taxonomy
Oreaster ocellatus was named by Forbes (1848). It is not extant. Its type specimen is Natural History Museum, London, holotype BNHM E 2571. It is the type species of Valettaster.

It was recombined as Pentaceros ocellatus by Spencer (1905); it was recombined as Stauranderaster ocellatus by Spencer (1907); it was recombined as Tholaster ocellatus by Spencer (1913); it was recombined as Valettaster ocellatus by Valette (1915), Mercier (1935), Brünnich-Nielsen (1943), Rasmussen (1950), Spencer and Wright (1966), Rasmussen (1979), Breton (1985), Breton (1986), Smith et al. (1988), Lewis (1993), Helm (1997), Jagt (2000), Villier (2001), Reich and Frenzel (2002) and Gale (2021).

Sister species lacking formal opinion data

Synonymy list
YearName and author
1848Oreaster ocellatus Forbes p. 468
1850Oreaster ocellatus Forbes p. 329 figs. pl. 21, fig. 13
1876Oreaster ocellatus Quenstedt p. 99 figs. pl. 94, fig. 5
1882Oreaster ocellatus Carpenter p. 530
1905Pentaceros ocellatus Spencer pp. 85-86 figs. pl. 25, fig. 4
1907Stauranderaster ocellatus Spencer p. 121 figs. fig. 32
1913Tholaster ocellatus Spencer p. 138 figs. pl. 13, fig. 24
1915Valettaster ocellatus Valette pp. 57-59 figs. fig. 19
1935Valettaster ocellatus Mercier p. 39 figs. pl. 2, fig. 8a-b
1943Valettaster ocellatus Brünnich-Nielsen p. 65 figs. pl. 4, fig. 29
1950Valettaster ocellatus Rasmussen p. 94 figs. pl. 10, fig. 22-23
1966Valettaster ocellatus Spencer and Wright p. U55 figs. fig. 52.1
1979Valettaster ocellatus Rasmussen p. 70
1985Valettaster ocellatus Breton pp. 91-93
1986Valettaster ocellatus Breton p. 29
1988Valettaster ocellatus Smith et al. pp. 194-195 figs. pl. 41, fig. 1
1993Valettaster ocellatus Lewis p. 67
1997Valettaster ocellatus Helm p. 116
2000Valettaster ocellatus Jagt pp. 428-429 figs. pl. 20, fig. 23-29; pl. 21, fig. 1-7
2001Valettaster ocellatus Villier p. 606 figs. fig. 9.13
2002Valettaster ocellatus Reich and Frenzel p. 182
2021Valettaster ocellatus Gale p. 725 figs. Figs 22E, 23A, 25G

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RankNameAuthor
kingdomAnimalia()
Bilateria
EubilateriaAx 1987
Life
Deuterostomia
Ambulacraria
phylumEchinodermata
subphylumEleutherozoa
Asterozoa()
RankNameAuthor
classAsteroidea
subclassAmbuloasteroidea
infraclassNeoasteroidea()
superorderValvatacea
orderValvatida
familySphaerasteridae
genusValettaster
speciesocellatus()

If no rank is listed, the taxon is considered an unranked clade in modern classifications. Ranks may be repeated or presented in the wrong order because authors working on different parts of the classification may disagree about how to rank taxa.

Valettaster ocellatus Forbes 1848
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Diagnosis
ReferenceDiagnosis
G. Breton 1985Form spherical, heavy. Extraxial plates weakly differentiated. Ambulacral groove ranging between third and half of the meridian. Ambulacrals compressed, very short. Axial outline rectangular or trapezoidal, very high. Abradial part flat, with large rounded surface of articulation with adambulacral plates. Adradial extremity narrow with reduced teeth. Adambulacral plates high to very high, slightly curved, with squared section. Actinal face squared and bearing rugosities but not well defined spine-bases. Lateral faces flat with a central obvious concavity. Upper margin truncated by faces of articulation with ambulacral plates. Extraxial skeleton in imbricated ossicle layers. Internally, a first layer of large, block like ossicles is overlapped by at least two secondary layers of ossicles decreasing in size eternally. Ossicles longer than wide at the equator, become equidimentional actinally. Primary ossicles thick, rounded to lobate. Internal face irregular, undulating. External face conical with a truncated external face with meandriform ornament. Slope of the cone with frequently tiny radiating pits.
A.S. Gale 2021Abactinal ossicles with a broad flat outer surface that bears dense, irregularly radiating ridges and beads of imperforate stereom.