A new species of Xyloplax (Echinodermata: Asteroidea: Concentricycloidea) from the northeast Pacific: comparative morphology and a reassessment of phylogeny

Abstract. Xyloplax janetae n. sp. is described from the northeast Pacific Ocean. This is the third species recognized for the monogeneric Concentricycloidea. Skeletal structures are elaborated by scanning electron microscopy and compared with those of Xyloplax medusiformis from New Zealand and Xyloplax turnerae from the Bahamas. Critical-point-dried specimens show fibrous connective tissue emerging from openings on the abactinal surface, on the abactinal spine bases, and at broken cross sections of the adambulacral spines. Knob-like structures emerging through the stereom openings of the abactinal spine base are also observed. Tube feet have round, swollen knobs and show few striations relative to other asteroids. Cosmopolitan bathyal–abyssal echinoderm species tend to exhibit few morphological differences over broad geographic ranges; this generalization is true of Xyloplax . The Concentricycloidea is proposed as an infraclass within the Asteroidea, as the sister branch to the Neoasteroidea (the crown-group asteroids) within the subclass Ambuloasteroidea. The hypothesis presented is compatible with recent phylogenetic data supporting affinities between Xyloplax and the Asteroidea. Characters plesiomorphic in basal neoasteroids are consistent with a sister-group relationship to concentricycloids. Actinal plate presence, an important synapomorphy for the Neoasteroidea, is absent from concentricycloids. The substantial morphological departure of Xyloplax is considered to be associated with the post-Paleozoic diversification of crown-group asteroids rather than from modification of an established and conservative morphology.