Edrioasteroidea

Edrioasteroidea is an extinct class of echinoderms. The living animal would have resembled a pentamerously symmetrical disc or cushion. They were obligate encrusters and attached themselves to inorganic or biologic hard substrates. A 507 million years old species, Totiglobus spencensis, is actually the first known echinoderm adapted to live on a hard surface after the soft microbial mats that covered the seafloor were destroyed in the Cambrian substrate revolution.

Edrioasteroidea

James St. John · CC BY 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
EchinodermataPBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB
Life habit
low-level epifaunalPBDB
Motility
stationary, attached, epibiontPBDB
Vision
limitedPBDB
Environment
marinePBDB, for Echinodermata

Time the record covers

At least 231 million years on record.

The record covers at least 514.5 Mya to 283.3 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 521 Mya to 274.4 Mya.

Cambrian — about 69 of 291 occurrencesCambrianOrdovician — about 177 of 291 occurrencesOrdovicianSilurian — about 16 of 291 occurrencesSilurianDevonian — about 15 of 291 occurrencesDevonianCarboniferous — about 13 of 291 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 1 of 291 occurrencesPermian526–517 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences517–509 Mya — about 18 occurrences509–500 Mya — about 38 occurrences500–492 Mya — about 9 occurrences492–483 Mya — about 4 occurrences483–475 Mya — about 3 occurrences475–466 Mya — about 9 occurrences466–458 Mya — about 5 occurrences458–449 Mya — about 109 occurrences449–440 Mya — about 53 occurrences440–432 Mya — about 3 occurrences432–423 Mya — about 10 occurrences423–415 Mya — about 3 occurrences415–406 Mya — about 4 occurrences406–398 Mya — about 3 occurrences398–389 Mya — about 2 occurrences389–381 Mya — about 2 occurrences381–372 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences372–364 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences364–355 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences355–346 Mya — about 1 occurrence346–338 Mya — about 1 occurrence338–329 Mya — about 4 occurrences329–321 Mya — about 3 occurrences321–312 Mya — about 2 occurrences312–304 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences287–278 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences278–269 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences514.5 Mya283.3 Mya526 Mya269 Mya

291 occurrences of Edrioasteroidea on record, most of them in the Ordovician. 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

291 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

108 formations

Bromide — 34.00°N, 97.00°WBromide — 34.07°N, 97.17°WBromide — 34.03°N, 97.17°WDunleith — 42.02°N, 93.45°WDunleith — 37.07°N, 89.57°WDunleith — 42.00°N, 90.50°WDunleith — 43.49°N, 91.87°WDunleith — 42.45°N, 89.08°WJince — 49.78°N, 13.97°EJince — 49.00°N, 14.00°EJbel Wawrmast — 31.52°N, 5.02°WJbel Wawrmast — 31.37°N, 5.02°WKinzers — 40.00°N, 76.73°WKinzers — 41.04°N, 78.29°WKinzers — 39.98°N, 76.76°WKinzers — 40.04°N, 76.31°WKinzers — 40.12°N, 76.33°WUpper Fezouata — 30.42°N, 5.85°WUpper Fezouata — 30.57°N, 5.99°WUpper Fezouata — 30.55°N, 5.68°WBobcaygeon — 44.56°N, 78.98°WBobcaygeon — 44.53°N, 78.55°WBobcaygeon — 44.58°N, 79.09°WVerulam — 44.75°N, 79.33°WVerulam — 44.45°N, 78.70°WVerulam — 44.50°N, 79.17°WVerulam — 44.00°N, 79.00°WOrchard Creek Shale — 37.19°N, 89.45°WFairview — 39.00°N, 84.00°WIon — 42.00°N, 90.50°WScales — 37.23°N, 89.47°WMurero — 41.52°N, 1.50°WMurero — 41.55°N, 1.67°WMurero — 41.15°N, 1.48°WMurero — 41.66°N, 1.77°WBellevue — 39.00°N, 84.00°WWhitewater — 39.00°N, 84.00°WArnheim — 39.00°N, 84.00°WWise Lake — 43.28°N, 91.85°WWise Lake — 42.00°N, 90.50°WDecorah Shale — 44.00°N, 92.00°WLower Ktaoua — 30.00°N, 8.50°WLower Ktaoua — 31.21°N, 4.82°WLower Ktaoua — 31.37°N, 5.47°WGolf Course — 33.95°N, 97.12°WUpper Tiouririne — 31.30°N, 5.23°WUpper Tiouririne — 31.54°N, 4.76°WDrakes — 38.07°N, 85.53°WDrakes — 37.98°N, 85.49°WKope — 39.00°N, 84.00°WCorryville — 39.00°N, 84.00°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Edrioasteroidea has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 84 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 11 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Edrioasteroidea and its relatives

Ordovician

Where Edrioasteroidea and its relatives were recorded in the Ordovician.

Found in the same rock

2,407 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 181 sites for Edrioasteroidea, 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

101 references

Each of the 291 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. 89 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 Edrioasteroidea

Credit
James St. John
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Edrioasteroidea 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 itEchinodermata through timeFormations of the OrdovicianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Billings 1858