Superfamily THEOPILIOIDEA Haeckel, 1882 n. stat.

sensu Suzuki emend. herein

Theopilida Haeckel, 1882: 435 [as a tribe]; 1887: 1313, 1315 [as a subfamily].

Theopiliilae – Campbell 1954: D129 [as a subsuperfamily]. — Nakaseko 1957: 27 [as a subsuperfamily].

Neosciadiocapsaceae O’Dogherty, 1994: 227 [as a superfamily].

DIAGNOSIS. — Skeleton having a very shallow hat-shaped to hatshaped shell with two segments. The thoracic pore frames of the thorax are systematically distributed in both longitudinal and lateral directions. The distal end of the thorax is associated with a velum, a latticed frame, many feet and other ornaments.

REMARKS

This superfamily consists of the Anthocyrtididae and Theopiliidae . The taxonomic position of the Theopilioidea is based on the molecular phylogenetic position of Eucecryphalus (Lineage III, Sandin et al. 2019) . They correspond to nassellarians characterized by a very shallow hat-shaped shells, classified into family Anthocyrtididae (= Neosciadiocapsidae in De Wever et al. 2001: 233-235) or Theopiliidae (De Wever et al. 2001: 238-239) . However, molecular phylogenetic data placed a close related morphological group, the Cycladophoridae (based on Cycladophora) into Lineage IV (Sandin et al. 2019). At that time, it was impossible to conceptualize a higher classification position for the Anthocyrtididae . The Lampromitridae may also belong to this superfamily (see remarks for Lampromitridae).