30 
F.C. Holmes 
Figure 1. A and B, general location maps; C, map of Murray River between Waikerie and Swan Reach, South Australia, showing locality of NMV 
PL3203, north of Blanchetown. 
Brissidae by Lambert (1905, p. 153), allowed numerous 
spatangoid genera to be divided into groups based primarily on 
the distinctive path followed by their fascioles. Lambert and 
Thiery (1925, pp. 514-515) listed Peribrissus Pomel, 1883 as a 
subgenus of PrenasterDesor, 1853 within the tribe Prenasterinae. 
However, in subsequent classifications of the Order Spatangoida 
by Mortensen (1951), Termier and Termier (1953), Durham and 
Melville (1957), Fischer (1966) and Smith (1984), the family 
Prenasteridae was not recognised, and Peribrissus and 
Prenaster were placed within the Schizasteridae. Not until 
Smith et al. (2005) and Smith and Stockley (2005) did the 
family Prenasteridae reappear in any subdivision of the 
Spatangoida. Finally, Kroh and Smith (2010) presented a 
primary framework for the classification of post-Palaeozoic 
echinoids based on extant taxa into which fossil taxa have been 
incorporated. In this classification, Prenasteridae, Schizasteridae 
and Periasteridae form the Suborder Paleopneustina. 
Genus Peribrissus Pomel, 1869 
Type species. Peribrissus saheliensis Pomel, 1883, by subsequent 
monotypy. 
Other species. P. sotgiai Giorgio, 1923. 
Diagnosis. Modified from Smith et al. (2005). Test medium to 
large and cordiform with distinct anterior sulcus, posterior face 
oblique to vertically truncate, profile depressed to moderately 
domed. Apical disk well anterior of centre, ethmolytic with 
three gonopores. Ambulacrum III sunken aborally, the groove 
increasing in width and depth to ambitus, with rows of enlarged 
tubercules occurring just outside adradial sutures, pores small. 
Petals straight, narrow and depressed, cruciform, the anterior 
pair longer than the posterior pair. Peristome and plastron 
plating of type species unknown. Periproct high on posterior 
truncate face. Semipetalous fasciole band combines with 
continuous marginal fasciole immediately behind and below 
anterior petals. 
Remarks. There has been confusion regarding the designation 
of the type species of Peribrissus. Fischer (1966, p. U576) and 
Smith et al. (2005) stated that P. saheliensis is the type species 
by original designation, but Pomel (1869, p. 13) did not name 
any species he assigned to his genus, for which he gave only a 
very brief diagnosis and made comparisons with Prenaster. 
Pomel later (1883, p. 36) gave a slightly more detailed diagnosis 
followed by the statement ‘P. saheliensis est du miocene 
superieur’. As saheliensis was the only named species assigned 
