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

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.