Holopodidae Zittel 1879

Family Holopodidae Zittel, 1879 Remarks. Sieverts-Doreck (1951) believed that some ossicles and deformed Eugeniacrinus cups figured by Remeš (1902: pl. 19, figs. 11 a–c, 12–15) from the Štramberk Tithonian could belong to an Upper Jurassic species of Cyathidium. However, the figure is too imprecise to confirm an attribution to Holopodidae. The mere inclusion of Cyathidium depressum in a long list of cyrtocrinids cited from Lower Cretaceous Štramberk-type limestones (Salamon & Gorzelak 2010: 871) cannot be taken into account without a critical analysis of the material concerned. Moreover, the attribution to C. senessei (Valette in Lambert & Valette, 1934) of a very poorly preserved axillary from the Santonian of Poland by Salamon and Gorzelak (2011: 311, fig. 2C, D) is highly questionable. Here, we consider that the appearance of Holopodidae prior to the Cenomanian has not been demonstrated. It appears that the H/Wd ratio of IBrax is the best quantitative character to discriminate between the two genera in the family (> 0.7 in Holopus, <0.7 in Cyathidium) (Fig. 7). Stratigraphic distribution. Upper Cenomanian–Recent.