Clypeaster subdepressus
Clypeaster subdepressus is a species of sea urchin in the family Clypeasteridae. This species was first scientifically described in 1825 by the British zoologist John Edward Gray. It is a very large and flattened sea biscuit, native to the east coasts of North, Central and South America.

Ryan Somma from Occoquan, USA · CC BY-SA 2.0 · 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 least 2.4 million years on record.
The record covers at least 2.58 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 11.63 Mya to 11.7 ka.
3 occurrences of Clypeaster subdepressus on record. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. 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
3 occurrences- Miocene46%
- Pliocene20%
- Pleistocene33%
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 subdepressus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Found in the same rock
21 taxa- Clypeaster rosaceus2 sites
- Macropneustes ventricosus2 sites
- Spondylus rotundatus2 sites
- Arbacia waccamaw1 site
- Argopecten anteamplicostata1 site
- Astrocoenia1 site
- Brissus glenni1 site
- Cardium emmonsi1 site
- Chione cancellata1 site
- Clypeaster carrizoensis1 site
- Conus1 site
- Dendostrea frons1 site
- Echinometra lucunter1 site
- Encope michelini1 site
- Euvola raveneli1 site
- Lindapecten muscosus1 site
- Lyropecten pittieri collierensis1 site
- Lyropecten pittieri floridensis1 site
- Orbicella annularis1 site
- Ostrea monroensis1 site
- Tucetona pectinata1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Clypeaster subdepressus, 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
2 references- Neogene and Quaternary geology of Aruba, Curaçao and Bonaire2
- Some fossil Clypeastrids (Echinoidea) from Brimstone Hill (St. Kitts) and Sugar Loaf (St. Eustatius), Lesser Antilles1
Each of the 3 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 content1
Picture of Clypeaster subdepressus
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Ryan Somma from Occoquan, USA
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 2.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Clypeaster subdepressus was found in Sketchfab.
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 timeThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Gray 1825)