Stenaster obtusus

via iDigBio · CC0 · 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
- StenasterPBDB
- Diet
- suspension feeder, deposit feederPBDB, for Stenaster
- Life habit
- low-level epifaunalPBDB, for Ophiuroidea
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Stenaster
- Vision
- blindPBDB, for Ophiuroidea
- Environment
- marinePBDB, for Stenaster
Time the record covers
At least 32 million years on record.
The record covers at least 471.3 Mya to 438.6 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 477.1 Mya to 432.9 Mya.
5 occurrences of Stenaster obtusus on record, most of them in the Ordovician. 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
5 occurrences- Ordovician80%
- Silurian20%
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
5 formations
- Richea Siltstone Formation1
- Furuberget Formation1
- Lexington Limestone Formation1
- Wah Wah Formation1
- Anderken Formation1
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The named rock units Stenaster obtusus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.
Stenaster obtusus and its relatives
OrdovicianWhere Stenaster obtusus and its relatives were recorded in the Ordovician.
Found in the same rock
40 taxa- Echinodermata2 sites
- Trilobita2 sites
- Acernaspis1 site
- Anacaenaspis1 site
- Anthozoa1 site
- Bivalvia1 site
- Brachiopoda1 site
- Bryozoa1 site
- Carinaropsis minima1 site
- Cyrtodonta subovata1 site
- Dalmanites1 site
- Decoroproetus1 site
- Dinorthis pectinella1 site
- Epipaston1 site
- Gastropoda1 site
- Gravicalymene1 site
- Helminthochiton1 site
- Hesperorthis1 site
- Hybocystites problematicus1 site
- Hyolitha1 site
- Leangella1 site
- Lyrodesma1 site
- Meifodia1 site
- Monoclimacis1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 4 sites for Stenaster obtusus, 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
5 references- New Early Paleozoic Asterozoa (Echinodermata) from the Armorican Massif, France, and the Western United States1
- Starfish from the Ordovician of the Oslo Region, Norway1
- Upper Ordovician brachiopods from the Anderken Formation, Kazakhstan: their ecology and systematics1
- An Early Silurian trilobite fauna from Tasmania1
- Asteroidea (Echinodermata)1
Each of the 5 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 Stenaster obtusus
- Source
- iDigBio
- Credit
- via iDigBio
- Licence
- CC0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Stenaster obtusus 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 itStenaster through timeFormations of the OrdovicianThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Forbes 1848)