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Comptonia elegans

Asteroidea - Valvatida - Goniasteridae

Taxonomy
Comptonia elegans was named by Gray (1840). It is not extant. Its type specimen is The Natural Huistory Museum, London, Neotype BNHM E 2567. It is the type species of Comptonia. It was considered paraphyletic by Breton (1992).

It was recombined as Goniaster (Stellaster) elegans by Forbes (1848); it was recombined as Stellaster elegans by Forbes (1850) and Carpenter (1882).

Sister species lacking formal opinion data
C. parvifolia, C. srodoniowae

Synonymy list
YearName and author
1840Comptonia elegans Gray p. 278
1848Goniaster (Stellaster) elegans Forbes p. 476
1850Stellaster elegans Forbes p. 336 figs. pl. 22, fig. 9
1850Comptonia elegans d'Orbigny p. 180
1854Comptonia elegans Morris p. 50
1862Comptonia elegans Dujardin and Hupé p. 408
1882Stellaster elegans Carpenter p. 530
1905Comptonia elegans Spencer pp. 71-72 figs. pl. 17 fig. 4
1913Comptonia elegans Spencer p. 131
1966Comptonia elegans Spencer and Wright p. U59
1978Comptonia elegans Breton pp. 32-33 figs. 18, pl. 5 fig. 21
1983Comptonia elegans Breton p. 244
1992Comptonia elegans Breton pp. 309-311 figs. pl. 38 fig. 1-3
1993Comptonia elegans Lewis p. 52
1997Comptonia elegans Breton p. 138
2020Comptonia elegans Gale p. 312 figs. Figs 2C, 5F

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RankNameAuthor
kingdomAnimalia()
—Bilateria
—EubilateriaAx 1987
—Deuterostomia
—Ambulacraria
phylumEchinodermata
subphylumEleutherozoa
—Asterozoa()
RankNameAuthor
classAsteroidea
subclassAmbuloasteroidea
infraclassNeoasteroidea()
superorderValvatacea
orderValvatida
familyGoniasteridae
genusComptonia
specieselegans

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.

†Comptonia elegans Gray 1840
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Diagnosis
ReferenceDiagnosis
G. Breton 1992Disc highly convex, covered by small polygonal abactinal plates. Wide ventro-lateral area. Arms well developed, R>3r. Interradial arc Arcs parabolic. Marginals with ornament of fine dense granule-pits.
A.S. Gale 2020Comptonia in which the interradii are acutely angled, and the interradial superomarginals are very narrow and steep, entirely lacking an abactinal surface.