Cladaster Verrill 1899

Cladaster Verrill, 1899 Cladaster Verrill 1899: 175; Fisher 1911: 221; Bernasconi 1963: 13; 1964: 255; Halpern 1970b: 179; Clark & Downey 1992: 238; A.M. Clark 1993: 251; Mah 2011: 19; 2018: 29 Diagnosis. (from Mah 2018) Body weakly stellate. Abactinal plates low tabulate with weakly to strongly expressed fasciolar channels. Hemispherical, coarse grained granules present on abactinal, marginal, and actinal plate surface which are easily abraded on preserved specimens. Large, spatulate type pedicellariae. Furrow spines, blunt to spatulate, oval in cross-section. Large, thick subambulacral spine present in addition to furrow spine. Comments Five species of Cladaster are accepted, including Pacific (C. macrobrachius, C. validus), Atlantic (C. rudis), Indian (C. katafractarius) and sub-Antarctic (C. analogus) settings. In situ observations of the tropical Atlantic Cladaster rudis showed it perched on an apparently dead Lophelia coral colony, suggesting predation of the coral polyps or epizoic forms on the coral skeleton (Mah 2020). Species: C. analogus Fisher 1940, C. katafractarius Mah 2018, C. macrobrachius H.L. Clark 1923; C. rudis Verrill 1899, C. validus Fisher 1919.