Bathysalenia skylari, a new late Turonian (Late Cretaceous) saleniid echinoid from central Texas, USA

Abstract A new species of saleniid is recorded from the so-called ‘Eagle Ford Condensed Zone’ with typical elements of the late Turonian Prionocyclus hyatti cephalopod Zone, which rests unconformably on the South Bosque Marl ( Collignoniceras woollgari cephalopod Zone) in the Georgetown area, Williamson County (central Texas). It is easily distinguished from both extinct (late Albian–early Paleocene) and extant congeners by a comparatively low test, wide ambulacral zones with large (near-)horizontal pore pairs, a large peristome with conspicuous gill slits and a highly ornamented apical disc with a relatively small suranal plate. The new species constitutes the first record of the genus Bathysalenia from North America.