COMATULIDAE Fleming, 1828

Mohammednowshad, B., Idreesbabu, K. K., Parameswaran, Usha V., Messing, Charles G. & Sureshkumar, S., 2020, The Shallow-water Crinoid Fauna of Lakshadweep Atolls, North-western Indian Ocean, Zootaxa 4789 (1), pp. 247-265 : 249-250

Family COMATULIDAE Fleming, 1828

Diagnosis.— Centrodorsal thick to thin discoidal or pentagonal, rarely stellate; aboral apex broad, cirrus-free, flat or slightly convex or concave, sometimes with narrow, radiating, interradial impressions; centrodorsal cavity less than 30 percent of centrodorsal diameter; adoral surface with interradial furrows for basals. Cirrus sockets without distinct ornament, around centrodorsal margin, never forming vertical columns; absent or few in some species with reduced centrodorsal. Basals rod-shaped. Radial articular facet parallel to oral-aboral axis or nearly so and with shallow fossae; adoral muscle fossae low, narrow bands, always smaller than inter articular ligament fossae. Radial cavity large, with a spongy calcareous filling. Arms 10 or more (up to 180). IBr2 series joined by synarthry, cryptosynarthry, or (in Comatula ) syzygy. Oral pinnules slender, flagellate, of numerous short pinnulars. Distal pinnulars of at least some oral pinnules bearing a comb formed by peg- or bladelike teeth, 1 or 2 per pinnular (abbreviated from Hess & Messing, 2011).

Remarks.— This family was previously called Comasteridae , which Summers et al. (2014) determined was a junior synonym of Comatulidae (see also Messing & Tay, 2016). See Summers et al. (2014) for a discussion of suprageneric taxa within Comatulidae .