A new species of Stegophiura (Ophiuroidea, Ophiopyrgidae) from the mid-Cretaceous of southern Japan

Well-preserved external moulds of articulated brittle stars from the middle to late Cenomanian (early-Late Cretaceous) Lower formation of the Mifune Group on the island of Kumamoto, southern Japan, are described as a new species of the genus Stegophiura, S. miyazakii. Extinct (Late Cretaceous) species previously assigned to Stegophiura are now shown to represent other genera; here, we transfer S.? hagenowi and S.? nekvasilovae to the extant ophiopezid genus Ophiopeza and S.? trispinosa to the extinct ophiacanthid Sabinacantha. The present specimens are thus inferred to be the sole wholly extinct representative and the oldest record of the genus Stegophiura.