Amphiuridae

Amphiuridae are a large family of brittle stars of the suborder Gnathophiurina. Some species are used to study echinoderm development and bioluminescence.

Amphiuridae

Mark Blaxter · Public Domain · 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
AmphiuroideaPBDB
Diet
detritivore, suspension feederPBDB
Life habit
semi-infaunal, gregariousPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB
Vision
blindPBDB, for Ophiuroidea
Environment
marinePBDB

Time the record covers

At least 133 million years on record.

The record covers at least 145.06 Mya to 11.63 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 149.2 Mya to 5.333 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 2 of 26 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 1 of 26 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 17 of 26 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 2 of 26 occurrencesEocene — about 0 of 26 occurrencesOligocene — about 1 of 26 occurrencesMiocene — about 3 of 26 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 26 occurrences152–147 Mya — about 1 occurrence147–142 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences137–132 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences132–127 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences127–122 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences102–97 Mya — about 1 occurrence97–92 Mya — about 2 occurrences92–87 Mya — about 1 occurrence87–82 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences82–77 Mya — about 3 occurrences77–72 Mya — about 3 occurrences72–67 Mya — about 4 occurrences67–62 Mya — about 3 occurrences62–57 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences37–32 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences32–27 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences27–22 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences22–17 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences17–12 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences12–7.4 Mya — about 2 occurrences7.4–2.5 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences145.06 Mya11.63 Mya152 Mya2 Mya

26 occurrences of Amphiuridae 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

26 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

14 formations

Maastricht — 50.85°N, 5.70°EMaastricht — 50.86°N, 5.79°EGulpen — 50.73°N, 5.67°EPierre jaune — 47.02°N, 6.98°EWhite Chalk — 54.52°N, 13.63°EVaals — 50.87°N, 5.95°EAsagai — 37.05°N, 140.92°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 Amphiuridae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 9 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Amphiuridae and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

386 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 24 sites for Amphiuridae, 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

18 references

Each of the 26 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. 6 further references are not listed. 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 content1

Picture of Amphiuridae

Credit
Mark Blaxter
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itAmphiuroidea through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Ljungman 1867