stars valley is one of the tourism areas in the qeshm island and is located at the southwest of qeshm city, south eastern corner of the island. sediments forming this unique landscape are not completely lithified and is composed of marl and marly limestone which is formed by erosional and weathering processes. deposits of stars valley contain diverse assemblages of echinoids, bivalves, gastropo...

Reported structural abnormalities mostly concern the echinoid test; these are not uncommon and indicate great plasticity of the echinoids. More than 400 animal agents have been reported from echinoderms. Most external agents either have processes that penetrate the body wall or live in cysts or galls on or in the body wall; intradigestive agents usually occur free in the digestive cavity; inter...

While some aspects of the phylogeny of the five living echinoderm classes are clear, the position of the ophiuroids (brittlestars) relative to asteroids (starfish), echinoids (sea urchins) and holothurians (sea cucumbers) is controversial. Ophiuroids have a pluteus-type larva in common with echinoids giving some support to an ophiuroid/echinoid/holothurian clade named Cryptosyringida. Most mole...

Phosphagens are phosphorylated guanidine compounds which, via the catalytic action of corresponding phosphagen kinases, function as temporal and possibly spatial ATP buffers (Meyer et al. 1985) in cells capable of dramatic metabolic transitions such as muscle, neurons and spermatozoa. At least eight different phosphagen kinases have been identified and these enzymes are widely distributed throu...

A new species of cassiduloid echinoids, Pygaulus baghinensis is reported for the first time from Aptian sediments of Baghin area, west of Kerman, Iran. The diagnostic features of the species are centrally positioned of the apical disc and approximately low profile of the test. Variation in gonopore size in different individuals allows to conclude that P. baghinensis is sexually dimorphic. Speci...