Haccourtaster liticola Gale & Jagt, 2025, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Gale, Andrew S.
name: Jagt, John W. M.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Echinodermata
Asteroidea
Valvatida
Goniasteridae
Haccourtaster
Haccourtaster liticola

description: Haccourtaster liticola sp. nov.
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: EA485F5E-310D-457E-8FBD-2DBD95D3EAE7
Fig. 1A–F
Type material. The median superomarginal (Fig. 1C) is the holotype (NHMUK PI EE 18204); the other figured marginals are paratypes (NHMUK PI EE 18205–18224). Upper lower Campanian of Ivö Klack (Skåne, southern Sweden).
Diagnosis. A relatively large Haccourtaster (R = 10–12 mm; r = 8–10 mm) in which the surfaces of the marginals are evenly convex and bear densely and evenly spaced, impressed granule pits and oval pedicellariae.
Additional material. Over 100 isolated marginals ossicles from the type locality and horizon (NHMUK, A.S. Gale Collection).
Etymology. Latin, litus, shore, - icola, inhabitant, in allusion to the shallow-water, rocky shoreline habitat of the species.
Description. The median superomarginals (Fig. 1A, C, F) are trapezoidal in abactinal outline, narrowing to the lateral border, and the breadth is twice the length. The abactinal surface is evenly convex and carries slightly impressed granule pits and short oval bases for pedicellariae (Fig. 1C). The ultimate superomarginals are equilaterally triangular (Fig. 1D) and abactinal and lateral surfaces are well demarcated. The median inferomarginals (Fig. 1B, E, F) are rectangular and have a breadth which is twice the length. The external surface is evenly tumid and bears numerous, shallow, evenly sized and spaced granule pits. The enlarged 2 nd inferomarginals (Fig. 1B) are triangular and taper distally (Fig. 1B, left). In some cases, a facet for a short 3 rd inferomarginal is present (Fig. 1B, right). The intramarginal cavities (Fig. 1F) extend close to the lateral borders of the ossicles.
Remarks. Haccourtaster liticola sp. nov. differs from all other species of the genus in its evenly tumid marginals which possess dense, evenly spaced granule pits of equal dimensions. The locality of Ivö Klack represents an upper lower Campanian rocky shoreline, where marginal sediments rest on Proterozoic gneiss. Boulders encrusted with zoned epifauna (Surlyk & Christensen 1974; Surlyk & Sørensen 2010) were buried by bioclastic shell sands and gravels, deposited in less than 30 metres of water. These yield an abundant and highly diverse calcitic fauna of bryozoans, echinoderms, bivalves, serpulids, brachiopods and cirripedes (Surlyk & Sørensen 2010; Sørensen & Surlyk, 2010, 2011a, b; Sorensen et al. 2012; Gale & Sørensen, 2015). Asteroids were described by Gale (1987 a, 2025) including a number of species of Metopaster that are endemic to the Kristianstad Basin. These include, for instance, M. bromleyi Gale, 1987a, morphologically close to the older M. thoracifer which is widely associated with species of Haccourtaster.
description: Published as part of Gale, Andrew S. & Jagt, John W. M., 2025, New species of the asteroid genus Haccourtaster Jagt, 2000 (Echinodermata, Goniasteridae) from the Upper Cretaceous of Denmark, Sweden and the United Kingdom, pp. 325-336 in Zootaxa 5632 (2) on page 328, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5632.2.6, http://zenodo.org/record/15372198