Cidaroida

Cidaroida
Cidaroida
Temporal range: Lower Permian–Recent
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Echinodermata
Class: Echinoidea
Subclass: Perischoechinoidea
Order: Cidaroida
Claus, 1880
Families

Cidaridae
Psychocidaridae

Cidaroida is an order of primitive sea urchins, the only living order of the subclass Perischoechinoidea. All other orders of this subclass became extinct during the Mesozoic, and were even more primitive than the living forms.

Their primary spines are much more widely separated than in other sea urchins, and they have no gills. Other primitive features include relatively simple plates in the test, and the ambulacral plates continuing as a series across the membrane that surrounds the mouth.

References