Hippasteria Gray, 1840

Mah, Christopher L., 2011, Taxonomy of high-latitude Goniasteridae (Subantarctic & Antarctic): one new genus, and three new species with an overview and key to taxa, Zootaxa 2759, pp. 1-48 : 26-27

Hippasteria Gray, 1840

Gray, 1840: 279; 1866: 9; Perrier, 1875: 271; (1876: 86); Sladen, 1889: 341; Fisher, 1911: 223; Verrill, 1914: 300; Koehler, 1924: 178; Mortensen, 1927: 88; Dons, 1938: 17; Fisher, 1911: 223; Verrill, 1914: 300; Mortensen, 1927: 88; 1940: 125; Djakonov, 1950: 51 (1968: 42); Bernasconi, 1964: 253; 1964: 253; Halpern, 1970b: 183; A.M. Clark & Courtman-Stock, 1976: 63; Clark & Downey, 1992: 246; H.E.S. Clark & McKnight, 2001: 54; Mah et al. 2010: 284.

Diagnosis. Body strongly stellate, disk thickened. Abactinal, marginal, actinal surfaces bear large, conical spines in most species. Large bivalve pedicellariae present in most species. Thickened, pulpy body wall embedded with body wall plates. Secondary plates present. Furrow spines one to three, enlarged.

Comments. Hippasteria and the Hippasterinae , were reviewed by Mah et al. (2010) and are apparently absent from the Southern Ocean. Only two species, H. phrygiana and H. falklandica are known from the region covered herein, but both are wide-ranging throughout the subantarctic region. Other than Hippasteria , hippasterines have not been recorded from the Southern Hemisphere, although the Cretaceous Hippasteria antiqua was described from the Senonian of New Zealand ( Fell, 1956).