Clypeaster reticulatus
Clypeaster reticulatus, the reticulated sea biscuit, is a species of sea urchin in the family Clypeasteridae. This species was first scientifically described in 1758 by Carl Linnaeus. It lives on the sandy seabed of shallow seas, semi-immersed in the sediment.

Frédéric Ducarme · CC BY-SA 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
- ClypeasterPBDB
- Diet
- detritivorePBDB, for Clypeasteroida
- Life habit
- semi-infaunalPBDB, for Clypeasteroida
- Motility
- slow-movingPBDB, for Clypeasteroida
- Vision
- limitedPBDB, for Echinoidea
- Environment
- marinePBDB, for Echinodermata
Time the record covers
At most 3.6 million years on record.
Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 3.6 Mya and 11.7 ka, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.
2 occurrences of Clypeaster reticulatus on record, most of them in the Pliocene. 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
2 occurrences- Pliocene64%
- Pleistocene36%
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
2 formations
Loading coastlines…
The named rock units Clypeaster reticulatus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.
Clypeaster reticulatus and its relatives
PlioceneWhere Clypeaster reticulatus and its relatives were recorded in the Pliocene.
Found in the same rock
20 taxa- Cardium2 sites
- Cyphastrea serailia2 sites
- Echinopora gemmacea2 sites
- Favites complanata2 sites
- Gloripallium pallium2 sites
- Goniastrea retiformis2 sites
- Heterocentrotus2 sites
- Hyotissa virleti2 sites
- Laganum depressum2 sites
- Lithophaga2 sites
- Lucina2 sites
- Pecten vasseli2 sites
- Platygyra daedalea2 sites
- Porites solida2 sites
- Alectryonella plicatula1 site
- Brissus1 site
- Fungia1 site
- Pecten (Pecten)1 site
- Turbinaria mesenterina1 site
- Venus1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Clypeaster reticulatus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.
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
1 referenceEach of the 2 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. Each entry links to the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.
Media and terms
Media content2
Picture of Clypeaster reticulatus
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Frédéric Ducarme
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
3D model
- Source
- Sketchfab
- Licence
- CC0 Public Domain
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.
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 itClypeaster through timeFormations of the PlioceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Linnaeus 1758)