Asteriidae Gray, 1840

Benavides-Serrato, Milena, O’Loughlin, P. Mark & Rowley, Chris, 2007, A new fissiparous micro-asteriid from southern Australia (Echinodermata: Asteroidea: Asteriidae), Memoirs of Museum Victoria 64, pp. 71-78 : 71

Asteriidae Gray, 1840

Remarks. Gray (1840) diagnosed his family Asteriadae as “skeleton netted with a single mobile spine at each anastomosis of the ossicula; body covered with more or less prominent elongatemobilespines”. Fisher(1928) consideredtheAsteriidae to be a “polyphyletic aggregation of genera placed for convenience under the aegis of Asterias ”. He characterized the family as having usually 5 or 6 rays, 5 primary longitudinal series of plates (carinal, 2 superomarginal, 2 inferomarginal), generally reticulate dorsal skeleton, crowded ambulacral plates, and mostly 2 or 4 longiseries of tube feet. A.M. Clark (1962) characterized the Asteriidae as having: usually 4 series of tube feet, short adambulacral plates, usually straight pedicellariae at least in the furrow, marginal spines not needle-like. Most recently McKnight (2006) diagnosed the family as “ Forcipulatida with five or more arms, usually merging into the disc, sometimes more sharply set off from it. Abactinal skeleton reticulate, with longitudinal and transverse series of plates, or reduced to isolated plates, in no apparent order. Skeleton extending to tip of rays, the plates armed with one or more spines or spinelets. Adambulacral plates short, with the spines in a single transverse series, usually one or two, but up to seven may be present. Tube feet in two or four rows”. The morphological characters of the asteriid species in this study are in accord with these diagnoses.