Metacrinus
Searched as Metacrinus berthei. The Paleobiology Database treats Metacrinus as the accepted name.
Metacrinus is a genus of stalked crinoids in the family Isocrinidae. Members of this genus live on hard surfaces in deeper parts of the ocean. The genus has extant species and is also represented in the fossil record. Members of the genus grow to a maximum height of 60 centimetres (24 in) and are found in the eastern Pacific Ocean from Japan to Australia.

Ernst Haeckel · Public Domain · 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
- MetacrininaePBDB
- Diet
- suspension feederPBDB, for Isselicrinidae
- Life habit
- upper-level epifaunalPBDB, for Isselicrinidae
- Motility
- stationary, attachedPBDB, for Isselicrinidae
- Vision
- blindPBDB, for Crinoidea
- Environment
- marinePBDB, for Echinodermata
Time the record covers
At most 4.5 million years on record.
Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 20.45 Mya and 15.98 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.
10 occurrences of Metacrinus on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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
10 occurrences- Miocene100%
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.
Metacrinus and its relatives
MioceneWhere Metacrinus and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.
Found in the same rock
118 taxa- ? Spinobrookula sp.1 site
- Acar1 site
- Adeonellopsis1 site
- Alvania1 site
- Amphissa acutecostata1 site
- Anthemiphyllia1 site
- Arbacina1 site
- Ascophorina1 site
- Balanophyllia1 site
- Balanus1 site
- Balcis1 site
- Bursa1 site
- Calyptopora1 site
- Cancellaria1 site
- Caryophyllia1 site
- Cassidulina1 site
- Cellaria1 site
- Centrostephanus1 site
- Cerithiopsidae1 site
- Cerithium1 site
- Cibicides1 site
- Cidaris1 site
- Conopora1 site
- Conus1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 14 sites for Metacrinus, 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
1 referenceEach of the 10 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 Metacrinus
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Ernst Haeckel
- Licence
- Public Domain
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Metacrinus 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
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Metacrinus”
- 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 itMetacrininae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Carpenter 1882