ASTEROIDEA OF NORTH PACIFIC AND ADJACENT WATERS — FISHER. 159 



Remarks. — The vicissitudes undergone by tliis group are indicated in a general 

 way by the synonymy. When Forbes instituted the family in 1841, in his notable 

 work A History of British Starlislies, he included only Asterina, Palnnpes, and 

 Goniaster. The fu-st two genera belong to a different order, and the group was 

 obviously quite unnatural. About the same time Gray published A Synopsis of 

 the Genera and Species of the Cla.ss Ilypostoma (Asterias Linnapus), and included 

 such genera as were then known in a large and unnatural family, Pentacerolidie, 

 which comprised theOreasteridje, Goniasterida\ Linckiida-, Echinasterida?, Asterope, 

 Uniopltora, and Xepanthia. Tliis family was evidently built around Culcita and 

 Oreaster as a nucleus. In 1867 Verrill adopted the name Goniasteridse, including 

 the following genera: Oreaster, NidoreUia, Paulia, Asterope, Parastcrina [Pat'tria], 

 Asterina [Asteriscus]. The family in that sense was not equivalent to the present 

 Goniasteridis, but Verrill evidently had other genera as well in mind. In 187.5, 

 Perrier, in the Revision des Stellcrides, excluded Ferdina (Tjinckiidap), and the various 

 forms of Asterinidffi adopted by Verrill, his fainih- being equivalent to the Gonias- 

 teridfe as here used, with the addition of the Oreasterids", Asteropida\ and Porania. 



Viguier (1879) in his Squelette des StcUerides modified Perrier's classification 

 including Frornia, Metrodira, Ferdina, but excluding Porania and all the Asteropida? 

 except Asterope [Gymnasteria]. Porania and the balance of the Asteropidffi were 

 placed in the Asterinidfe. In 1884, Perrier, in the Memoire sur les fitoiles de Mer, 

 rehnquished the name Goniasteridte, dividing the family as constituted in 1875 into 

 four, namely, Pentagonasteridse, Antheneidse, Pentaccrotidse, and Gj^mnasteridse. 

 Sladen (1889) adopted this classification, while expressing his doubts as to the 

 validitv of the Antheneidaj (pp. 260, 338). Sladen's Pentagonasteridje included 

 one genus, Gnathaster { = OdontaMer), wliich is now placed in a separate family, and 

 it lacked the Pseudarchasterinae, Antheneinje, and AmpJaaMer. Perrier. in 1894, 

 (Expeditions Scientifiques du TravaiUeur et du Talisman) rearranged somewhat 

 the genera of the Pentagonasteridie." He excluded Gnathaster, as also Leptogonaster 

 and Mimaster, and its alhes, relegating them to the Archasterida\ Wiile there 

 are reasons in favor of so classifying Mimaster, none can be adduced to support such 

 a treatment of Leptogonaster. Verrill, in 1899 (Revision of Certain Genera and 

 Species of Starfishes), estabhshed two new subfamilies, the Mediasterinae for Medi- 

 aster, XympJiaster, and Xereidaster, and the Ilippasteriina? for Ilippa.fteria and 

 Cladaster. He added to the Pseudarchasterina^ Paragonaster and Hosa-ster, and 

 separated Odonta.ster and its alhes in a distinct family, the Odontasterida\ He 

 recognized the -Ajitheneidae with Anthenea and Pseudoreaster, and placed tlie Mimas- 

 terinoB in liis new family Phitonasterida?. He also definitely reinstated Gonias- 

 teridse as a name, and renamed the "Goniaster" ohtusangulus of Sladen,* Pseudo- 

 reaster. 



"It may be noted parenthetically that Goniasteridie was dropped because the name Goniaster 

 was without reason fastened upon Pscudori aster obtusnngulus (Lamarck'i, a species not even mentioned 

 by Agassiz in the original description. Thus the placing of "Goniaster '' in the Antheneidic necessitated 

 the new name Pentagonasteridse. 



*Mo3t writers have overlooked the fact that Agassiz definitely cited Asterias tesullata Lamarck as 

 the type of Goniaster. (M<;m. soc. sii. nat. Neuchatel, vol. 1, 183.5, p. 145.) 



