Amphiura

Amphiura is a large genus of brittle stars (Ophiuroidea) found in oceans worldwide, from tropics to Arctic and Antarctic regions.

Amphiura

RECOLNAT (ANR-11-INBS-0004) - Marie Hennion - 2014 · CC BY 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
AmphiuridaePBDB
Diet
detritivore, suspension feederPBDB, for Amphiuridae
Life habit
semi-infaunal, gregariousPBDB, for Amphiuridae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Amphiuridae
Vision
blindPBDB, for Ophiuroidea
Environment
marinePBDB, for Amphiuridae

Time the record covers

At least 82 million years on record.

The record covers at least 93.9 Mya to 11.63 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 100.5 Mya to 5.333 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 0 of 16 occurrencesLate Cretaceous — about 14 of 16 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 16 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 0 of 16 occurrencesOligocene — about 0 of 16 occurrencesMiocene — about 2 of 16 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 16 occurrences102–99 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences99–96 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences96–93 Mya — about 1 occurrence93–89 Mya — about 2 occurrences86–83 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences83–79 Mya — about 2 occurrences79–76 Mya — about 2 occurrences76–73 Mya — about 2 occurrences73–69 Mya — about 2 occurrences69–66 Mya — about 2 occurrences66–63 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences63–60 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences13–10 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences10–6.7 Mya — about 1 occurrence6.7–3.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences93.9 Mya11.63 Mya102 Mya3 Mya

16 occurrences of Amphiura on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

16 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

11 formations

Gulpen — 50.73°N, 5.67°EWhite Chalk — 54.52°N, 13.63°EMaastricht — 50.85°N, 5.70°ESanta Cruz Mudstone — 37.05°N, 122.01°WLower Chalk — 51.08°N, 1.18°EAguja — 28.63°N, 106.07°WPeruc-Korycany — 50.06°N, 15.10°EBìlà Hora — 49.83°N, 15.25°ETeplice — 50.45°N, 14.05°EChatsworth — 34.20°N, 118.69°WSanta Margarita — 37.06°N, 122.03°W

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The named rock units Amphiura has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 4 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Amphiura and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Amphiura and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

277 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 15 sites for Amphiura, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

10 references

Each of the 16 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Amphiura

Credit
RECOLNAT (ANR-11-INBS-0004) - Marie Hennion - 2014
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC0 Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itAmphiuridae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Forbes 1843