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Volume 137 Supplement 2

Special Issue: Hans Hess: A lifelong passion for fossil echinoderms

Editorial “Special Issue: Hans Hess: a lifelong passion for fossil echinoderms”

Swiss Journal of Palaeontology volume 137, pages 119–121 (2018)Cite this article

Already back in 2011, an echinoderm special issue was published on the occasion of Hans’ 80th birthday (Meyer, 2011) and this was also the first issue of the Swiss Journal of Palaeontology. Moreover, since its appearance in 2011, Hans had published almost all of his research articles in the Swiss Journal of Palaeontology (Hess 2012, 2014a; b, c, d, 2015; Hess et al. 2016; Hess & Thuy 2018), a total of eight articles in six years, four of which were published in 2014. In the present issue the last article of Hans is published, where he reflects on the emergence and early radiation of cyrtocrinid crinoids, with new species from a Lower to Middle Jurassic “rock reef” of Feuguerolles (France); the article is co-authored by Ben Thuy (Hess & Thuy, 2018). All of Hans’ contributions were of outstanding quality already by the time of submission and generally required minor revisions only. He truly was an exceptional contributor for our journal.

To honour Hans Hess and his lifelong passion for fossil echinoderms, shortly after his death, we decided to publish a second Special Issue in the Swiss Journal of Palaeontology. And we got a really excellent feedback from the fossil echinoderm research community. All together, 21 research articles are included in the present issue. This includes not only an obituary by Etter (2018) reviewing Hans’ research career and providing a complete reference list ranging from 1955 to 2018, but also giving interesting insights into other aspects of his rich live.

Four of the five extant groups of echinoderms are covered in Hans’ publications. Only holothurians were rarely treated by Hans, although he did include them in his seminal popular science book “Die fossilen Echinodermen des Schweizer Juras” (Hess 1975). Unfortunately, the holothurians are missing in this volume. However, it is planned to fill this gap with an article on holothurians by Mike Reich with a special dedication to Hans in a forthcoming volume of the Swiss Journal of Palaeontology.

In this Special Issue, four new taxa are named in honour of Hans Hess: Trombonicrinus (col.) hanshessi gen. et sp. nov. (Donovan et al. 2018), Eocenocrinus hessi gen. et sp. nov. (Merle & Roux, 2018), Hanshessaster gen. nov. including species Actinometra blakei (Messing 2018), and Hansaster (gen. nov.) trimbachensis (Gale 2018). Furthermore, the following new taxa were erected: Propteraster amourensis gen. et sp. nov. (Gale 2018), Thuyaster fontenoillensis gen. et sp. nov. (Gale 2018), Stegophiura miyazakii sp. nov. (Ishida et al. 2018), Luxaster martini gen. et sp. nov. (Müller et al. 2018), Hypselaster strougoi sp. nov. (Elattaar 2018), and Clypeaster sarawakensis sp. nov. (Mihaljević & Rosenblatt 2018).

Nowadays, it is not always easy to find qualified researchers willing to review in a short time period, especially when it comes to more specific research topics as we often deal with in palaeontology. Therefore, we want to particularly acknowledge the reviewers who have substantially contributed to assure the high quality of the herein published articles. They are (in alphabetical order) William I. Ausich, Tomasz Baumiller, Stephen K. Donovan, Tim A.M. Ewin, Andrew Gale, David Gladwell, Hans Hagdorn, Reimund Haude, Fred Hotchkiss, Aaron W. Hunter, John Jagt, Christian Klug, Andreas Kroh, Charles Messing, David Meyer, Georgy Mirantsev, Elise Nardin, James Nebelsick, Tatsuo Oji, Roger W. Portell, Imran Rahman, Elizabeth Rhenberg, Mariusz Salamon, James Saulsbury, George D. Sevastopulo, James R. Thomka, Loïc Villier, Johnny Waters, Gary D. Webster and Samuel Zamora. Some of these reviewers have reviewed up to four manuscripts.

Finally, we want to thank Hans for his yearlong friendship, the many fruitful discussion and all the knowledge he shared with us over so many years.

List of contributions of the Hans Hess Echinoderm Special Issue

Etter, W. (2018). Hans Hess (1930–2017): a life-long passion for echinoderms. Swiss Journal of Palaeontology, 137/2. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13358-017-0143-8

Hess, H., & Thuy, B. (2018). Emergence and early radiation of cyrtocrinids, with new species from a Lower to Middle Jurassic rock reef of Feuguerolles (Normandy, France). Swiss Journal of Palaeontology, 137/2. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13358-018-0160-2

Ausich, W.I. (2018). Morphological paradox of disparid crinoids (Echinodermata): phylogenetic analysis of a Paleozoic clade. Swiss Journal of Palaeontology, 137/2. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13358-018-0147-z

Baumiller, T.K. & Gahn, F.J. (2018). The nature of the platyceratid–crinoid association as revealed by cross-sectional data from the Carboniferous of Alabama (USA). Swiss Journal of Palaeontology, 137/2. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13358-018-0167-8

Baumiller, T.K. & Stevenson, A. (2018). Reconstructing predation intensity on crinoids using longitudinal and cross-sectional approaches. Swiss Journal of Palaeontology, 137/2. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13358-018-0169-6

Brom, K.R., Oguri, K., Oji, T., Salamon, M.A. & Gorzelak, P. (2018). Experimental neoichnology of crawling stalked crinoids. Swiss Journal of Palaeontology, 137/2. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13358-018-0158-9

Donovan, S.K., Waters, J.A. & Pankowski, M.S. (2018). Form and function of the strangest crinoid stem: Devonian of Morocco. Swiss Journal of Palaeontology, 137/2. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13358-018-0149-x

Hagdorn, H., Berra, F. & Tintori, A. (2018). Encrinus aculeatus von Meyer, 1849 (Crinoidea, Encrinidae) from the Middle Triassic of Val Brembana (Alpi Orobie, Bergamo, Italy). Swiss Journal of Palaeontology, 137/2. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13358-018-0170-0

Merle, D. & Roux, M. (2018). Stalked crinoids from Gan (Late Ypresian, southwestern France): exceptional stereom preservation, paleoecology and taxonomic affinities. Swiss Journal of Palaeontology, 137/2. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13358-018-0162-0

Messing, C.G. (2018). Actinometra blakei Hartlaub, 1912: resurrected and re-assigned. Swiss Journal of Palaeontology, 137/2. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13358-018-0165-x

Tenny, A. & Donovan, S.K. (2018). A fossil crinoid with four arms, Mississippian (Lower Carboniferous) of Clitheroe, Lancashire, UK. Swiss Journal of Palaeontology, 137/2. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13358-018-0163-z

Thomka, J.R., Brett, C.E., Bole, T.A. & Campbell, H.J. (2018). A noteworthy accumulation of disparid crinoids from the type Cincinnatian (Upper Ordovician) of southwestern Ohio, USA: implications for the palaeoecology and taphonomy of crinoid “logjam” assemblages. Swiss Journal of Palaeontology, 137/2. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13358-018-0159-8

Webster, G.D. (2018). Mississippian–Permian evolution and paleogeographic distribution of the Cromyocrinidae and Pirasocrinidae (Crinoidea, Dendrocrinida). Swiss Journal of Palaeontology, 137/2. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13358-018-0161-1

Gale, A.S. (2018). Origin and phylogeny of velatid asteroids (Echinodermata, Neoasteroidea)—new evidence from the Jurassic. Swiss Journal of Palaeontology, 137/2. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13358-018-0155-z

Ishida, Y., Thuy, B., Fujita, T., Kadokawa, M., Ikegami, N. & Numberger-Thuy, L.D. (2018). A new species of Stegophiura (Ophiuroidea, Ophiopyrgidae) from the mid-Cretaceous of southern Japan. Swiss Journal of Palaeontology, 137/2. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13358-018-0168-7

Müller, P., Hahn, G. Franke, C. & Thuy, B. (2018). A new paedomorphic protasterid brittle star (Echinodermata, Ophiuroidea) from the Early Devonian of Luxembourg and Germany. Swiss Journal of Palaeontology, 137/2. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13358-018-0174-9

Thuy, B., Numberger-Thuy, L.D. & Jagt, J.W.M. (2018). An unusual assemblage of ophiuroids (Echinodermata) from the late Maastrichtian of South Carolina, USA. Swiss Journal of Palaeontology, 137/2. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13358-018-0166-9

Donovan, S.K. & Jagt, J.W.M. (2018). Big oyster, robust echinoid: an unusual association from the Maastrichtian type area (province of Limburg, southern Netherlands). Swiss Journal of Palaeontology, 137/2. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13358-018-0151-3

Donovan, S.K. (2018). The internal morphology of primary spines of extant regular echinoids in the tropical western Atlantic: a SEM atlas. Swiss Journal of Palaeontology, 137/2. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13358-018-0157-x

Elattaar, A.A. (2018). A new species of Hypselaster (Echinoidea, Spatangoida) from the Middle Eocene Midawara Formation of the Eastern Desert, Egypt. Swiss Journal of Palaeontology, 137/2. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13358-018-0156-y

Mihaljević, M. & Rosenblatt, A.J. (2018). A new fossil species of Clypeaster (Echinoidea) from Malaysian Borneo and an overview of the Central Indo-Pacific echinoid fossil record. Swiss Journal of Palaeontology, 137/2. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13358-018-0164-y

Klug, C., Pohle, A., Kiel, S. & Kröger, B. (2018). A fossilized marble run: the peculiar taphonomy of Ordovician diploporitan blastozoans from Sweden. Swiss Journal of Palaeontology, 137/2. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13358-018-0173-x

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Naturhistorisches Museum Basel, Augustinergasse 2, 4051, Basel, Switzerland

    Daniel Marty

  2. Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Basel, Bernoullistrasse 32, 4065, Basel, Switzerland

    Christian A. Meyer

  3. Department of Palaeontology, Natural History Museum Luxembourg, 25, Rue Münster, 2160, Luxembourg, Luxembourg

    Ben Thuy

  4. Paläontologisches Institut und Museum, Karl Schmid-Strasse 4, 8006, Zurich, Switzerland

    Christian Klug

  5. Taxonomy and Systematics Group, Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Postbus 9517, 2300 RA, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Stephen K. Donovan

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  2. Christian A. Meyer
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  3. Ben Thuy
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  4. Christian Klug
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  5. Stephen K. Donovan
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Correspondence to Daniel Marty.

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Marty, D., Meyer, C.A., Thuy, B. et al. Editorial “Special Issue: Hans Hess: a lifelong passion for fossil echinoderms”. Swiss J Palaeontol 137, 119–121 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13358-018-0178-5

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