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The Bathyal Holothurians of the New Zealand Region
[Introduction]
Diagnosis: Tentacles 12–20. Bodywall thick, gelatinous, completely lacking calcareous deposits. A large brim is usually present anteriorly, and the pelagothuriids have adopted a bathypelagic habit.
This most unusual group of holothurians of bathypelagic habit is represented in New Zealand by a single genus. As Hansen and Madsen (1956) have pointed out, the systematic position of this group is not established with certainty, and they have suggested that the bathypelagic elasipods are neotenic.