Micraster americanus

Micraster americanus

via iDigBio · 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
MicrasterPBDB
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 most 18 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 83.6 Mya and 66 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Late Cretaceous — about 14 of 14 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 14 occurrences84–83 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences83–83 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences83–82 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences82–82 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences82–81 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences81–80 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences80–80 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences80–79 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences79–79 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences79–78 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences78–77 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences77–77 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences77–76 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences76–75 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences75–75 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences75–74 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences74–74 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences74–73 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences73–72 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences72–72 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences72–71 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences71–70 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences70–70 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences70–69 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences69–69 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences69–68 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences68–67 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences67–67 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences67–66 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences66–66 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences84.1 Mya65.5 Mya

14 occurrences of Micraster americanus 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

14 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

6 formations

Saratoga Chalk — 34.08°N, 93.12°WSaratoga Chalk — 33.80°N, 93.70°WSaratoga Chalk — 34.04°N, 93.14°WSaratoga Chalk — 33.76°N, 93.90°WCorsicana Marl — 29.37°N, 98.78°WCorsicana Marl — 29.48°N, 98.81°WRipley — 34.12°N, 88.88°WMarlbrook Marl — 34.08°N, 93.14°WPrairie Bluff Chalk — 34.43°N, 88.93°WPrairie Bluff — 34.24°N, 89.00°W

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

Micraster americanus and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Micraster americanus and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

45 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 14 sites for Micraster americanus, 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 reference

Each of the 14 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 Micraster americanus

Source
iDigBio
Credit
via iDigBio
Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

No 3D scan of Micraster americanus was found in Smithsonian Open Access and Sketchfab.

MorphoSource was 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 itMicraster through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Stephenson 1941)