OVULASTER PROTODECIMAE, N. SP. (ECHINOIDEA, SPATANGOIDA) AND ASSOCIATED EPIFAUNA (CIRRIPEDIA, VERRUCIDAE) FROM THE DANIAN OF NORTHEASTERN ITALY

A new species of irregular echinoid, Ovulaster protodecimae, is described from the Danian Scaglia Rossa Formation outcropping in the Venetian Prealps (Southern Alps, northeastern Italy). The new species, belonging to the order Spatangoida, is very distinctive because of its inflated, almost triangular test, the high-positioned periproct and the plate arrangement on the oral face. This is the first report of the genus Ovulaster in the Danian of Italy and the first description of an echinoid from the Early Palaeocene of Italy. One test has an epifauna of the sessile verrucid barnacle Verruca sp. cf. V. prisca Bosquet, 1854, attached on all except the oral surface.