Metopaster tumidus

Metopaster tumidus

via iDigBio · CC BY · via iDigBio. 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
MetopasterPBDB
Diet
detritivorePBDB, for Goniasteridae
Life habit
epifaunalPBDB, for Goniasteridae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Goniasteridae
Vision
limitedPBDB, for Asteroidea
Environment
marinePBDB, for Goniasteridae

Time the record covers

At least 13 million years on record.

The record covers at least 85.7 Mya to 72.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 89.8 Mya to 66 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 3 of 3 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 3 occurrences90–89 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences89–89 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences89–88 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences88–87 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences87–86 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences86–85 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences73–72 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences72–71 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences71–70 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences70–70 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences70–69 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences69–68 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences68–67 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences67–66 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences66–66 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences85.7 Mya72.2 Mya90.3 Mya65.5 Mya

3 occurrences of Metopaster tumidus on record, most of them in the Late 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

3 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

2 formations

Maastricht — 50.85°N, 5.70°EWhite Chalk — 54.52°N, 13.63°E

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The named rock units Metopaster tumidus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Metopaster tumidus and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Metopaster tumidus and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

175 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Metopaster tumidus, 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

3 references

Each of the 3 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. 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 Metopaster tumidus

Source
iDigBio
Credit
via iDigBio
Licence
CC BY
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Metopaster tumidus 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 itMetopaster through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Spencer 1913