Comatulida

Comatulida is an order of crinoids. Members of this order are known as feather stars and mostly do not have a stalk as adults. The oral surface with the mouth is facing upwards and is surrounded by five, often divided rays with feathery pinnules. Comatulids live on the seabed and on reefs in tropical and temperate waters.

Comatulida

albert kok · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
Also called
Feather starPBDB
Sits inside
ArticulataPBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB
Life habit
intermediate-level epifaunalPBDB
Motility
facultatively mobile, attachedPBDB
Vision
blindPBDB, for Crinoidea
Environment
marinePBDB

Time the record covers

At least 201 million years on record.

The record covers at least 201.4 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 205.7 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Late Triassic — about 1 of 322 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 1 of 322 occurrencesEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 8 of 322 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 13 of 322 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 49 of 322 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 174 of 322 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 12 of 322 occurrencesEocene — about 30 of 322 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 18 of 322 occurrencesMiocene — about 15 of 322 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 322 occurrencesPleistocene — about 1 of 322 occurrences210–203 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences203–196 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences189–182 Mya — about 1 occurrence175–168 Mya — about 1 occurrence168–161 Mya — about 7 occurrences161–154 Mya — about 5 occurrences154–147 Mya — about 7 occurrences147–140 Mya — about 6 occurrences140–133 Mya — about 28 occurrences133–126 Mya — about 2 occurrences126–119 Mya — about 3 occurrences119–112 Mya — about 2 occurrences112–105 Mya — about 6 occurrences105–98 Mya — about 5 occurrences98–91 Mya — about 13 occurrences91–84 Mya — about 36 occurrences84–77 Mya — about 25 occurrences77–70 Mya — about 45 occurrences70–63 Mya — about 62 occurrences63–56 Mya — about 4 occurrences56–49 Mya — about 9 occurrences49–42 Mya — about 3 occurrences42–35 Mya — about 17 occurrences35–28 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences28–21 Mya — about 28 occurrences21–14 Mya — about 4 occurrences14–7.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences7.0–0 Mya — about 1 occurrence201.4 Mya129 ka210 Mya0 Mya

322 occurrences of Comatulida on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. 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

322 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

44 formations

Otekaike Limestone — 44.69°S, 170.76°EOtekaike Limestone — 44.66°S, 170.65°EMaastricht — 50.85°N, 5.70°EMaastricht — 50.85°N, 6.77°EMaastricht — 50.85°N, 5.78°EMaastricht — 50.86°N, 5.79°EHaslam — 49.19°N, 124.10°WHaslam — 49.52°N, 124.88°WHaslam — 49.18°N, 124.35°WHaslam — 49.19°N, 124.15°WHaslam — 49.08°N, 124.01°WHaslam — 49.02°N, 123.95°WHaslam — 49.02°N, 123.94°WHaslam — 48.84°N, 123.72°WHaslam — 48.81°N, 123.61°WHaslam — 48.76°N, 123.80°WGulpen — 50.73°N, 5.67°EGulpen — 50.75°N, 5.67°EMaastricht — 50.80°N, 5.67°EWhite Chalk — 54.52°N, 13.63°EGlen Rose Limestone — 29.80°N, 98.73°WGlen Rose Limestone — 29.89°N, 98.27°WGlen Rose Limestone — 29.75°N, 99.00°WMarnes de Foncouverte — 43.17°N, 2.70°EMarnes de Foncouverte — 43.15°N, 2.57°ELondon Clay — 51.40°N, 0.83°ELondon Clay — 51.51°N, 0.24°ECastle Hayne — 34.64°N, 77.65°WCastle Hayne — 34.37°N, 77.86°WAhlen — 51.75°N, 8.03°EPrairie Bluff — 32.58°N, 88.19°WPrairie Bluff — 33.50°N, 88.86°WPrairie Bluff — 33.78°N, 88.97°WZone de Pierre jaune — 47.05°N, 7.08°EVincentown — 39.97°N, 74.68°WVincentown — 39.93°N, 74.73°WHouthem — 50.87°N, 5.78°EKorallenoolith — 51.97°N, 9.62°EKorallenoolith — 52.15°N, 9.98°ELiegende Bankkalk — 48.12°N, 8.87°ELa Meseta — 64.24°S, 56.65°WCraie de Villedieu — 45.00°N, 0.37°ESantee Limestone — 33.33°N, 79.69°WHumeralis Schichten — 47.47°N, 7.37°EGulpen — 50.85°N, 5.70°ESolnhofen Platenkalk — 48.92°N, 11.50°ECampanien 1-2 — 45.75°N, 0.47°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Comatulida has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 20 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 137 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Comatulida and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

1,869 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 172 sites for Comatulida, 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

74 references

Each of the 322 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. 62 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 Comatulida

Credit
albert kok
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
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 itArticulata through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Clark 1908