Five-rayed Echinasteridae with open or close meshed skeleton bearing numerous small spinelets either in groups or scattered along the ridges composing the skeleton; marginal plates distinguishable from abactinal plates, usually obvious; adambulacral plates with one or more spinelets deep in the ambulacral furrow (modified from Fisher, 1911).
Type: Asterias oculata Pennant, 1777 (by original designation)