Epiaster

Epiaster

James St. John · CC BY 2.0 · via Wikidata/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
SpatangidaePBDB
Diet
deposit feeder, detritivorePBDB, for Spatangoida
Life habit
shallow infaunalPBDB, for Spatangoida
Motility
slow-movingPBDB, for Spatangoida
Vision
limitedPBDB, for Echinoidea
Environment
marinePBDB, for Spatangoida

Time the record covers

At least 29 million years on record.

The record covers at least 113.2 Mya to 83.6 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 121.4 Mya to 72.2 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 28 of 44 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 16 of 44 occurrencesLate Cretaceous122–121 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences121–119 Mya — about 1 occurrence119–117 Mya — about 1 occurrence117–116 Mya — about 1 occurrence116–114 Mya — about 1 occurrence114–112 Mya — about 1 occurrence112–110 Mya — about 1 occurrence110–109 Mya — about 1 occurrence109–107 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences107–105 Mya — about 3 occurrences105–104 Mya — about 5 occurrences104–102 Mya — about 5 occurrences102–100 Mya — about 5 occurrences100–99 Mya — about 2 occurrences99–97 Mya — about 2 occurrences97–95 Mya — about 2 occurrences95–93 Mya — about 2 occurrences93–92 Mya — about 2 occurrences92–90 Mya — about 2 occurrences90–88 Mya — about 1 occurrence88–87 Mya — about 1 occurrence87–85 Mya — about 1 occurrence85–83 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences83–81 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences81–80 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences80–78 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences78–76 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences76–75 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences75–73 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences73–71 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences113.2 Mya83.6 Mya122 Mya71 Mya

44 occurrences of Epiaster on record, most of them in the Early Cretaceous. 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

44 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

13 formations

Mauddud — 25.90°N, 56.07°EGrès verts helvétiques — 46.09°N, 6.76°EAmbarimaninga — 16.50°S, 46.00°ENeuburger Weiß — 48.73°N, 11.18°ETadhart — 31.21°N, 7.88°WCraie de Villedieu — 45.00°N, 0.37°EDenison — 32.79°N, 97.32°WGrizzle — 50.80°N, 0.18°ECongost — 42.23°N, 0.93°EColl de Jovell — 42.17°N, 0.90°EAzilé — 0.39°N, 9.48°ECatumbela — 12.45°S, 13.57°ECoporolo — 12.97°S, 13.08°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Epiaster has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 27 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Epiaster and its relatives

Early Cretaceous

Where Epiaster and its relatives were recorded in the Early Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

392 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 38 sites for Epiaster, 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

19 references

Each of the 44 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. 7 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 Epiaster

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

No 3D scan of Epiaster 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.

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itSpatangidae through timeFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0.