Lemoneites

{{Short description|Genus of echinoderms (fossil)}}

{{Italic title}}

{{Taxobox

| name = Lemoneites

| fossil_range = {{fossil range|Ordovician}}

| image =

| image_caption =

| regnum = Animalia

| phylum = Echinodermata

| subphylum = Crinozoa

| classis = †Cystoidea

| ordo = †Glyptocystitida

| genus = †Lemoneites

| genus_authority = Flower, 1969{{cite journal|last=Flower|first=R.H.|year=1969|title=Merostomes from a Cotter horizon of the El Paso Group|journal=New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources Memoir|volume=22|pages=35–44|doi=10.58799/M-22|doi-access=free}}

| species = †L. mirabilis

| binomial = {{extinct}}Lemoneites mirabilis

| binomial_authority = Flower, 1969

}}

Lemoneites is a genus of glyptocystitid, a group of extinct blastozoan echinoderms, known from the Ordovician period. The genus was first described in 1969 by Rousseau H. Flower. It contains a single species, L. mirabilis, known from fossils found in the lower part of the Scenic Drive Formation within the El Paso Group{{refn|group=Note|The El Paso Formation is considered to have group rank by Flower (1964).{{cite journal|last=Flower|first=R.H.|year=1964|title=The nautiloid order Ellesmeroceratida (Cephalopoda)|journal=New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources Memoir|volume=12|pages=1–234|doi=10.58799/M-12|doi-access=free}}}} of the Franklin Mountains in Texas. The fossils are preserved as silica replacements etched in dolomite. The genus was originally described as an aglaspidid within its own family, Lemoneitidae. It was also described as a xiphosuran.{{cite journal|title=A glyptocystitid cystoid affinity for the putative stem group chelicerate (Arthropoda: Aglaspidida or Xiphosura) Lemoneites from the Ordovician of Texas, USA|first1=Rachel A.|last1=Moore|first2=Simon J.|last2=Braddy|journal=Lethaia|pp=293-296|issue=3|volume=38|date=September 2005|doi=10.1080/00241160510013277|doi-access=free}} Later, it would be assigned to the order Strabopida, but after a study, Lemoneites was classified as an echinoderm.{{cite journal|title=Trilobite and xiphosuran affinities for putative aglaspidid arthropods Caryon and Drabovaspis, Upper Ordovician, Czech Republic|first1=Javier|last1=Ortega-Hernández|first2=Simon J.|last2=Braddy|first3=Štěpán|last3=Rak|journal=Lethaia|date=9 March 2010|volume=43|issue=3|pp=427–431|doi=10.1111/j.1502-3931.2010.00216.x|doi-access=free}} The genus originally contained three additional species: L. ambiguus, L. gomphocaudatus, and L. simplex. All three are now considered synonyms of L. mirabilis.