Ophiomusium anisacanthum H. L. Clark, 1928

Baker, Alan N., 2016, An illustrated catalogue of type specimens of the bathyal brittlestar genera Ophiomusium Lyman and Ophiosphalma H. L. Clark (Echinodermata: Ophiuroidea), Zootaxa 4097 (1), pp. 1-40 : 6

Ophiomusium anisacanthum H. L. Clark, 1928 .

Figures 4 a, b

Ophiomusium anisacanthum H. L. Clark, 1928 ; Baker and Devaney 1981.

Holotype SAM K254 (previously E 480), Spencer or St Vincent Gulfs, South Australia, <55m. This is an unusually shallow occurrence for Ophiomusium and may be an error.

Main Features: Disc with large, finely granular plates dorsally and ventrally. Radial shields pear-shaped and separated by two plates. Interradial areas consist of three large plates, including a wide marginal plate. Ventral interradial areas have six large plates including distinctive oral shields pointed proximally and straight distally. Oral papillae separated.

Lateral arm plates large, bearing four arm spines on the basal segments. The lowermost pair of spines are separated from the uppermost, and the lowermost spine is the longest. Beyond the 7th or 8th segments, only the lower pair are present. The first two ventral arm plates are large and each has a pair of tentacle pores bearing two scales. Succeeding ventral arm plates are small, triangular and reach only to the 8th segment. Dorsal arm plates triangular and present only basally.