Stylasteridae

Stylasteridae, also known as lace corals, is a family of colonial hydrozoans with a calcified skeleton. They first appeared 65 million years ago in deep waters. About 10% of the species have adapted to live in water less than 50 metres deep. The rest are found in deeper water, most commonly between 200 and 400 metres, with the deepest known species observed at a depth of 2,789 metres.

Stylasteridae

Seascapeza · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
StylasterinaPBDB
Diet
carnivore, suspension feederPBDB, for Hydrozoa
Life habit
epifaunalPBDB, for Hydrozoa
Motility
stationary, attachedPBDB, for Hydrozoa
Vision
blindPBDB, for Hydrozoa

Time the record covers

At least 63 million years on record.

The record covers at least 66 Mya to 3 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 72.2 Mya to 2.4 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 1 of 17 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 4 of 17 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 3 of 17 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 1 of 17 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 4 of 17 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 3 of 17 occurrencesPleistocene — about 1 of 17 occurrences74–71 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences71–69 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences69–66 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences66–64 Mya — about 2 occurrences64–61 Mya — about 2 occurrences57–54 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences54–52 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences52–49 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences49–47 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences47–45 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences45–42 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences42–40 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences40–37 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences37–35 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences35–32 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences28–25 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences25–23 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences23–20 Mya — about 1 occurrence20–18 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences8.3–5.8 Mya — about 1 occurrence5.8–3.4 Mya — about 1 occurrence3.4–1.0 Mya — about 3 occurrences66 Mya3 Mya74 Mya1 Mya

17 occurrences of Stylasteridae on record, most of them in the Paleocene. 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

17 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

8 formations

Brèches rouges de Carboneras — 37.60°N, 1.32°WCalcaire de Vigny — 49.07°N, 1.92°ELa Meseta — 64.26°S, 56.74°WKomako — 40.12°S, 175.88°EPakaurangi — 36.22°S, 174.28°EMatanginui — 43.78°S, 176.53°WGee Greensand — 45.18°S, 170.90°EMiria — 23.02°S, 114.08°E

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The named rock units Stylasteridae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 8 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Stylasteridae and its relatives

Paleocene

Where Stylasteridae and its relatives were recorded in the Paleocene.

Found in the same rock

446 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 7 sites for Stylasteridae, 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

9 references

Each of the 17 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 Stylasteridae

Credit
Seascapeza
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Stylasteridae was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access was 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 itStylasterina through timeFormations of the PaleoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Gray 1847