Genus Chrispaulia Gale, 2005

Chrispaulia Gale, 2005: 2, fig. 4a–c.

Type species

Nymphaster radiatus Spencer, 1905, by original designation (see Fig. 13A–C).

Diagnosis

Arms long, narrow; disc small, with rounded interbrachial arcs; superomarginals meeting over radius along length of arm; distal marginals imbricate (emended from Gale 2005).

Assigned species

In addition to the type species, Chrispaulia jurassica Gale, 2011 (Gale 2011a), C. wrightorum sp. nov. and C. spinosa sp. nov.

Remarks

The record in the Treatise of Invertebrate Paleontology (Part U; Spencer & Wright 1966) of a benthopectinid from the “Albian of England ” is based on an arm fragment from the Albian Red Chalk of Yorkshire, United Kingdom (C.W. Wright, pers. comm. to ASG, 1978). We have examined this specimen (NHMUK PI EE 17997), which comprises five marginal ossicles reconstructed on plasticene. The shape of the ossicles indicates that this specimen belongs to the genus Chrispaulia; it is here described as a new species, C. wrightorum sp. nov. (see below). In addition, we record another species from the Hauterivian (Lower Cretaceous) of northeast England and northern Germany.