Lepidocystidae

Lepidocystidae
Temporal range:
The lepidocystid Kinzercystis
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Echinodermata
Class: Eocrinoidea
Order: Imbricata
Family: Lepidocystidae
Durham 1967
Genera
  • Lepidocystis Foerste 1938
  • Kinzercystis Sprinkle 1973
  • Vyscystis Fatka & Kordule 1990

The Lepidocystidae (sometimes misspelled Lepidocystoidae, not to be confused with the class Lepidocystoidea that was proposed at the same time but later abandoned) are an extinct family that constitue the most basal known group within the paraphyletic class "Eocrinoidea", and therefore within the subphylum Blastozoa as a whole. Its members, along with the transitional Felbabkacystidae, are also known as "imbricates" or "imbricate Eocrinoids" after the likewise paraphyletic order Imbricata.

Lepidocystids demonstrate that echinoderms had already developed five equally well-developed ambulacra in five-sided radial symmetry. However, this group had not yet developed pentameral symmetry in its plate arrangements.