Heliaster microbrachius

Heliaster microbrachius is a species of Asteroidea in the family Heliasteridae.

Heliaster microbrachius

Hectonichus · 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
HeliasterPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Forcipulatida
Life habit
low-level epifaunal, solitaryPBDB, for Forcipulatida
Motility
slow-movingPBDB, for Forcipulatida
Vision
limitedPBDB, for Asteroidea
Environment
marine,brackishPBDB, for Forcipulatida

Time the record covers

At most 2.8 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 5.333 Mya and 2.58 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Miocene — about 0 of 2 occurrencesPliocene — about 2 of 2 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 0 of 2 occurrences5.3–5.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.2–5.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.1–5.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.0–4.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.8–4.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.7–4.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.6–4.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.5–4.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.3–4.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.2–4.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.1–4.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.0–3.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.8–3.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.7–3.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.6–3.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.5–3.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.3–3.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.2–3.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.1–3.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.0–2.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.8–2.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.7–2.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.83 Mya2.08 Mya

2 occurrences of Heliaster microbrachius on record, most of them in the Pliocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. 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

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

1 formation

Tamiami — 26.98°N, 82.21°WTamiami — 26.13°N, 81.48°W

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The named rock units Heliaster microbrachius has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Heliaster microbrachius and its relatives

Pliocene

Where Heliaster microbrachius and its relatives were recorded in the Pliocene.

Found in the same rock

60 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Heliaster microbrachius, 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

2 references

Each 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 doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Heliaster microbrachius

Credit
Hectonichus
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Heliaster microbrachius 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 itHeliaster through timeFormations of the PlioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Xantus 1860