species: Stephanometra indica in Lizard Island Field Guide (Lizard Island Field Guide)
Lizard Island Field Guide > Marine Life > Invertebrates > Feather Stars > Completely hidden during day > Stephanometra indica (gallery)
Stephanometra indica


©Anne Hoggett: Stephanometra indica in natural position at night at Lizard Island (specimen 1)

©Lyle Vail and Anne Hoggett: Stephanometra indica at Lizard Island (specimen 2), removed from deep within branching coral. Note the strong, spike-like oral pinnules.

©Anne Hoggett: Stephanometra indica at North Point, Lizard Island.

show or add records

Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Echinodermata
Class Crinoidea
Order Comatulida
Family Mariametridae
Genus Stephanometra
Species Stephanometra indica

Show in taxonomy
Lizard Island Field Guide
Lizard Island area: all known taxa

Colours

                        

Distinguishing features

Hidden during the day, fully exposed at night, up to about 40 arms and a good ring of cirri. Proximal pinnules are large, stiff and spike-like, bent inwards to cover the central body mass. 

Viewed from the underside, all division series are of two ossicles, well-separated from each other, and the sides of the division series ossicles have rounded edges. The cirri do not have strong spines on the distal segments. These characters are not easy to see in the field. 

Size

  • Size data has not been obtained.

Depth range

  • Depth range data is not yet available.

Synonyms

Distribution


©Atlas of Living Australia: Australian distribution

Distribution and habitat preferences

Stephanometra indica is common throughout the Lizard Island group although they are rarely seen during the day. Like Dichrometra palmata they emerge from their hiding places at sunset and feed during the night.

Web resources

References

  • Lanterbecq, D., G.W. Rouse and I. Eeckhaut (2009). Evidence for cospeciation events in the host-symbiont system involving crinoids (Echinodermata) and their obligate associates, the myzostomids (Myzostomida, Annelida), Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, doi: 10.1016: jymev20090811. LIRS catalog number 1274.
  • Meyer, D.L. (1985). Evolutionary implications of predation on recent comatulid crinoids from the Great Barrier Reef, Paleobiology, 11(2): 154-164. LIRS catalog number 167.
  • Rouse, G.W., L.S. Jermiin, N.G Wilson, I. Eeckhaut, D. Lanterbecq, T. Oji, C.M. Young, T. Browning, P. Cisternas, L.E. Helgen, M. Stuckey and C.G. Messing (2013). Fixed, free, and fixed: The fickle phylogeny of extant Crinoidea (Echinodermata) and their Permian - Triassic origin. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 66: 161-181. LIRS catalog number 1601.
  • View all references