Astropectinidae

The Astropectinidae are a family of sea stars in the order Paxillosida. Usually, these starfish live on the seabed and immerse themselves in soft sediment such as sand and mud.

Astropectinidae

Philippe Guillaume · CC BY 2.0 · 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
PaxillosidaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB
Life habit
semi-infaunal, solitaryPBDB
Motility
slow-movingPBDB
Vision
limitedPBDB, for Asteroidea
Environment
marinePBDB

Time the record covers

At least 221 million years on record.

The record covers at least 227.3 Mya to 5.333 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 237 Mya to 2.58 Mya.

Middle Triassic — about 0 of 179 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 3 of 179 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 1 of 179 occurrencesEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 23 of 179 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 17 of 179 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 28 of 179 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 62 of 179 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 4 of 179 occurrencesEocene — about 26 of 179 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 3 of 179 occurrencesMiocene — about 11 of 179 occurrencesPliocene — about 1 of 179 occurrencesPleistocene — about 0 of 179 occurrences242–234 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences234–226 Mya — about 2 occurrences185–177 Mya — about 1 occurrence177–169 Mya — about 2 occurrences169–161 Mya — about 21 occurrences161–153 Mya — about 10 occurrences153–145 Mya — about 7 occurrences145–137 Mya — about 3 occurrences137–129 Mya — about 7 occurrences129–121 Mya — about 9 occurrences121–113 Mya — about 2 occurrences113–105 Mya — about 3 occurrences105–97 Mya — about 13 occurrences97–89 Mya — about 11 occurrences89–81 Mya — about 8 occurrences81–73 Mya — about 3 occurrences73–64 Mya — about 32 occurrences64–56 Mya — about 2 occurrences56–48 Mya — about 6 occurrences48–40 Mya — about 15 occurrences40–32 Mya — about 5 occurrences32–24 Mya — about 2 occurrences24–16 Mya — about 6 occurrences16–8.1 Mya — about 4 occurrences8.1–0 Mya — about 1 occurrence227.3 Mya5.333 Mya242 Mya0 Mya

179 occurrences of Astropectinidae on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. 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

179 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

64 formations

La Meseta — 64.24°S, 56.67°WLa Meseta — 64.26°S, 56.68°WLa Meseta — 64.24°S, 56.65°WLa Meseta — 64.25°S, 56.62°WGulpen — 50.73°N, 5.67°EGulpen — 50.75°N, 5.67°EMaastricht — 50.85°N, 5.70°EMaastricht — 50.85°N, 5.77°EMaastricht — 50.86°N, 5.79°EPierre Blanche de Langrune — 49.30°N, 0.35°WMaastricht — 50.80°N, 5.67°EEffinger Schichten — 47.26°N, 7.52°EPawpaw — 32.84°N, 97.29°WPawpaw — 32.70°N, 97.30°WPawpaw — 32.63°N, 97.40°WAtherfield Clay — 50.60°N, 1.32°WAtherfield Clay — 50.61°N, 1.36°WPapierschiefer — 48.87°N, 11.77°EHouthem — 50.87°N, 5.78°EWhite Chalk — 54.52°N, 13.63°EMarnes de Foncouverte — 43.15°N, 2.57°EMarnes de Foncouverte — 43.17°N, 2.70°ECarmel — 38.28°N, 111.48°WCarmel — 37.20°N, 113.58°WKeasey — 46.00°N, 123.25°WNavidad — 33.95°S, 71.87°WHasler — 55.96°N, 122.03°WTaboulouart — 30.78°N, 8.53°WNawodzice sands — 50.62°N, 21.43°ECozy Dell — 34.54°N, 119.25°WCozy Dell — 34.55°N, 119.23°WRaibl — 47.35°N, 11.32°ERaibl — 47.33°N, 11.46°EFolkestone — 51.08°N, 1.18°EPierre jaune — 47.02°N, 6.98°EGulpen — 50.85°N, 5.70°EParchucla — 30.33°N, 82.76°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Astropectinidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 40 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 52 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Astropectinidae and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Astropectinidae and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

1,924 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 148 sites for Astropectinidae, 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

75 references

Each of the 179 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. 63 further references are not listed. 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 Astropectinidae

Credit
Philippe Guillaume
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Astropectinidae 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

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 itPaxillosida through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Gray 1840