Novos equinoides (Echinodermata: Echinoidea) do Albiano da Bacia do Araripe, nordeste do Brasil

Abstract

In this paper are registered the Echinoidea species Douvillaster benguellensis (Loriol 1888) and Hemiaster proclivus Cotteau, Peron & Gauthier 1878 in the upper beds of the Romualdo Member, Santana Formation (Albian), from the Rancharia District, Pernambuco State, western portion of the Araripe Basin. With this registry, extends the geographical paleodistribution of these species, before found in the Riachuelo Formation (Aptian-Albian) and in the Sergipe-Alagoas Basin in Brazil, and Catumbela Formation from the Benguela Basin in Angola. According to the functional morphology of the shells, in the Araripe Basin, H. proclivus had lived inner of sand substrate in shallow marine environment, and D. benguellensis had lived almost as an endofaunal organism in deeper environment, where the circulation and oxygenation of the water conditions were more restricted.