Recently, I have posted a web site devoted to the carpoids "The
carpoid site"
<
http://www.ucm.es/info/paleo/carpos>.
At present, "The Carpoid Site" is hosted in the web site of the
Department of Palaeontology at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. The
site has been opened just with an annotated check-list of the genera and
species of carpoids. I expect that the site grow as I can have spare time
to do it.
The carpoids are an informal grouping of Palaeozoic fossils which have a
skeleton of echinoderm-like calcite but lack radial symmetry based on the
water vascular system. They are highly controversial being regarded by
some as aberrant echinoderms and by others as members of the stem groups
of many of the major subgroups of deuterostomes (craniates, tunicates,
acraniates, chordates and conceivably of the echinoderms, hemichordates,
ambulacraria and perhaps of the deuterostomes themselves). Carpoids
includes Cincta, Ctenocystoidea, Soluta, Cornuta and Mitrata. Personaly,
I regard Carpoids as part of the basal radiation of the deuterostomes.
A short account of the calcichordates as we see them today is on
the way.
The Carpoid Site
http://www.ucm.es/info/paleo/carpos
Cheers,
Patricio
__
Dr. Patricio DOMINGUEZ-ALONSO
Department of Palaeontology
The Natural History Museum
Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK
patd@nhm.ac.uk
patricio@geo.ucm.es
padomin@terra.es
Tel 0207 942 5335 (internationally 0044 207 942 5335)
Fax 0207 942 5546 (internationally 0044 207 942 5546)