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The Bathyal Holothurians of the New Zealand Region

[Introduction]

Diagnosis: Tentacles 8–30 in number, not branched but digitiform or digitate, the digits sometimes bifurcate. Retractor muscles, tubefeet and respiratory trees present. Calcareous ring simple, lacking complex posterior processes. Body U-shaped, enclosed in a test comprising imbricate plates.

Remarks: Of the three families (Ypsilothuriidae, Rhopalodinidae and Vaneyellidae) included in this order (Pawson and Fell, 1965, p. 2) only the Ypsilothuriidae is well represented in bathyal depths.