Daniele Fois

• Biodiversity Journal, 5 (2): 229-232 - MONOGRAPH

  Paolo Stara & Daniele Fois
  Dispute about Echinodiscus Leske, 1778 and Amphiope L. Agassiz, 1840 (Echinoidea Astriclypeidae)

  ABSTRACT
  Between the late 1800s and early 1900s, some European echinologists gave rise to a dispute over belonging to the genus Amphiope Agassiz, 1840, rather than Echinodiscus Leske 1778, of some lunulate scutelliforms present in the Oligocene-Miocene deposits of France and Italy. The problem has never been resolved, due to the fact that these echinologists considered the similarities or differences in shape, rather than structural ones. One of the nodes of the dispute was the variability in shape and size of the lunules in Amphiope. Because of all these problems, and also because of the impossibility to obtain and examine the structures of some type specimens of several species established in the past, the recognition of new species is very complicated and research carried out so far, in many cases is doubtful or controversial.

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