Brittle and basket stars (ophiuroids) are one of five extant classes of the phylum Echinodermata and have a fossil record dating back almost 500 million years to the Early Ordovician. Today, they remain diverse and widespread, with over 260 described genera and 2,077 extant species globally (Stöhr et al. 2018), more than any other class of echinoderm. Ophiuroid species are found across all marine habitats from the intertidal shore to the abyss. In southern Africa, the ophiuroid fauna has been studied extensively by a number of authors and is relatively wellknown. The last published review of the southern African Ophiuroidea however was by Clark & Courtman-Stock in 1976. It included 101 species reported from within the boundaries of South Africa. In the 40 years since that publication the number of species has risen to 136. This identification guide includes a taxonomic key to all 136 species, and gives key references, istribution maps, diagnoses, scaled photographs (where possible), and a synthesis of known ecological and depth information for each. The guide is designed to be comprehensive, well illustrated and easy to use for both naturalists and professional biologists. Taxonomic terms, morphological characteristics and technical expressions are defined and described in detail, with illustrations to clarify some aspects of the terminology. A checklist of all species in the region is also included, and indicates which species are endemic (33), for which we report significant range extensions (23), which have been recorded as new to the South African fauna (28) since the previous monograph of Clark & Courtman-Stock (1976) and which have undergone taxonomic revisions since that time (28).
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RBINS Staff Publications 2019
This field guide gives an insight into the Lower Palaeozoic geology of the Geete outcrop area in the surroundings of Jodoigne. Five selected outcrops or groups of outcrops are visited. These are the northern Dongelberg Quarry at Dongelberg, the Les Fosses Quarry at Opprebais (Incourt), outcrops along the Rue du Maka at Jauchelette, outcrops along the Rue du Vieux Moulin at Jodoigne and the outcrop below the town hall at Jodoigne. In each case, a detailed description is provided of the lithology, lithostratigraphy and structural architecture, followed by remarks and interpretation. The geological observations from these field trip stops are used to illustrate lithological differences between the Blanmont Formation and the different facies of the Jodoigne Formation, to demonstrate the presence of steeply plunging and gently plunging folds, to illustrate the common occurrence of pre-cleavage folds, interpreted as slump folds, and to outline our arguments for the newly proposed stratigraphic position of the Jodoigne Formation. The cartographic proximity of the Lower Cambrian Blanmont Formation and the Middle to Upper Cambrian Jodoigne Formation is explained by means of the Asquempont Detachment System. The observations and their implications are placed in the broader context of the Belgian Lower Palaeozoic.
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