Description

The test is circular in outline with a truncated posterior margin. The petals are broad and extent over much of the aboral surface almost reaching the ambulacral lunules. The lunules are open and broad being circular in shape, with half of the unpaired posterior (anal) lunule situated between the posterior petals. The greatest height in the test occurs posteriorly, midway between the apical disc and the anal lunule. Fringe and lunule spines are only moderately flattened, not broadly widened, and do not fill the lunules. Aboral spines are club-shaped, being rounded and inflated distally forming a moderately dense spine canopy. The biphylous pedicellariae are typical of the genus, while the bidentate occur in two forms, a large scissor-like form and a smaller beaked form with distal teeth typical of the microporaspecies-complex.

A. H. Clark (1946) established borealis as a variety of Encope micropora, differentiating it from the later species by the shape of its test and lunules.

Common Names

Taxonomic Hierarchy

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Echinodermata

Class: Echinoidea

Order: Echinolampadacea

Family: Mellitidae

Genus: Encope

Species: Encope borealis A.H.Clark, 1946