Xyloplax turnerae is a sea daisy, a member of an unusual group of marine taxa belonging to the phylum Echinodermata.

An enigmatic new species of echinoderm, Xyloplax medusiformis, was discovered in the South Pacific near New Zealand and first described in 1986 by Baker, Rowe and Clark.

Further deep sea exploration by the same team using a submersible vehicle led to the discovery of a new species of Xyloplax.

[2] In 2004, another species in this genus was collected in a similar way from a depth of 2,675 metres (8,776 ft) in the north east Pacific Ocean.

It is shaped like a flattened disc and is fringed by a row of short spines which are all of approximately equal length in the range 300–400 μm.