Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 May 2016
Illusioluidia teneryi is a new genus and species of asteroid echinoderm described from the Missourian (Upper Pennsylvanian) Wolf Mountain Shale of Texas. Illusioluidia is important because it is strongly homeomorphic with modern Luidia; Luidia has been considered primitive among living asteroids by some authors. Illusioluidia, however, is not ancestral to Luidia or any other modern genus; similarities are convergent. Luidia is a predator, largely on active invertebrates (other echinoderms, mollusks), whereas Illusioluidia is inferred to have been a small-particle feeder. Homeomorphy reflects neither descent nor feeding habits; environmental controls are suggested.