A new bathyal ophiacanthid brittle star (Ophiuroidea: Ophiacanthidae) with Caribbean affinities from the Plio-Pleistocene of the Mediterranean Author Numberger-Thuy, Lea D. Author Thuy, Ben text Zootaxa 2020 2020-07-27 4820 1 19 30 journal article 9183 10.11646/zootaxa.4820.1.2 8f361ffe-9e56-41f8-ab77-fae3b124798d 1175-5326 4397238 ED703EC8-3124-413F-8B17-3C1695B789C5 Genus Ophiacantha Müller & Troschel, 1842 Remarks. Ophiacantha is one of the most species-rich ( Stöhr et al. 2012 ) and heterogeneous genera among the living ophiuroids ( O’Hara & Stöhr 2006 ; Thuy 2013 ). Latest molecular evidence confirmed earlier suspicions that the genus, as currently defined, represents a polyphyletic amalgam of species ( O’Hara et al. 2017 , 2018) that should be subdivided into several genus-level clades. Previous studies already hinted at morphologically coherent species groups within Ophiacantha potentially representing such genus-level clades ( O’Hara & Stöhr 2006 ; Thuy 2013 ). A revision of Ophiacantha and allied genera combining molecular and morphological evidence by far exceeds the scope of the present paper. We therefore preliminarily assign the species described herein to Ophiacantha , emphasizing, however, that it belongs to a separate species group than the type species O. bidentata .