''Ophiohamus'' is a genus of
brittle stars
Brittle stars, serpent stars, or ophiuroids (; ; referring to the serpent-like arms of the brittle star) are echinoderms in the class Ophiuroidea, closely related to starfish. They crawl across the sea floor using their flexible arms for locomot ...
in the family
Ophiacanthidae
Ophiacanthidae is a family of brittle stars. Axel Vilhelm Ljungman circumscribed this taxon in 1867; he initially named the subfamily Ophiacanthinae within the family Amphiuridae
Amphiuridae (commonly called long-armed burrowing brittle stars ...
from
New Caledonia
)
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.
Timothy D. O'Hara and Sabine Stöhr
circumscribed
In geometry, the circumscribed circle or circumcircle of a polygon is a circle that passes through all the vertices of the polygon. The center of this circle is called the circumcenter and its radius is called the circumradius.
Not every polyg ...
and named the genus in 2006; they
described the type species ''
Ophiohamus nanus'' in the same work.
A second species, ''
Ophiohamus georgemartini'', was described by O'Hara and Caroline Harding in 2015.
, those are the only two species recognized in this genus.
The genus is distinguished from other closely related genera such as such as ''
Ophiomitrella'' and ''
Ophiurothamnus'' by a combination of the following characteristics:
[
*discs with coarse, overlapping disc plates integrated with large, contiguous radial shields, sometimes with spines;
*interradial incision shallow, the distal two with widened outer papillae;
*small oral and adoral shields, the former distal to the latter and contiguous with the lateral arm plate;
*arms curving but not coiling;
*3–4 short arm spines, restricted laterally to the arm;
*arm spines up to or just exceeding a segment in length;
*lowest arm spine semi-hooked;
*jaw slit enclosing oral tentacles; and
*simple tentacle scale covering small tentacle pore.
]
References
Ophiuroidea genera
Endemic fauna of New Caledonia
Ophiacanthida
{{Ophiuroidea-stub