Blastoidea

Blastoids are an extinct type of stemmed echinoderm, often referred to as sea buds. They first appear, along with many other echinoderm classes, in the Ordovician period, and reached their greatest diversity in the Mississippian subperiod of the Carboniferous period. However, blastoids may have originated in the Cambrian. Blastoids persisted until their extinction at the end of Permian, about 250 million years ago. Although never as diverse as their contemporary relatives, the crinoids, blastoids are common fossils, especially in many Mississippian-age rocks.

Blastoidea

Diego Delso · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
Also called
blastoidPBDB
Sits inside
BlastozoaPBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB
Life habit
intermediate-level epifaunalPBDB
Motility
stationary, attachedPBDB
Vision
blindPBDB
Environment
marinePBDB, for Echinodermata

Time the record covers

At least 209 million years on record.

The record covers at least 461 Mya to 251.902 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 471.3 Mya to 251.1 Mya.

Ordovician — about 35 of 760 occurrencesOrdovicianSilurian — about 87 of 760 occurrencesSilurianDevonian — about 148 of 760 occurrencesDevonianCarboniferous — about 431 of 760 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 58 of 760 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 1 of 760 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 0 of 760 occurrences476–468 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences468–460 Mya — about 2 occurrences460–453 Mya — about 6 occurrences453–445 Mya — about 22 occurrences445–438 Mya — about 9 occurrences438–430 Mya — about 50 occurrences430–422 Mya — about 29 occurrences422–415 Mya — about 11 occurrences415–407 Mya — about 7 occurrences407–399 Mya — about 5 occurrences399–392 Mya — about 29 occurrences392–384 Mya — about 56 occurrences384–376 Mya — about 16 occurrences376–369 Mya — about 8 occurrences369–361 Mya — about 16 occurrences361–354 Mya — about 28 occurrences354–346 Mya — about 68 occurrences346–338 Mya — about 63 occurrences338–331 Mya — about 130 occurrences331–323 Mya — about 138 occurrences323–315 Mya — about 4 occurrences315–308 Mya — about 3 occurrences308–300 Mya — about 2 occurrences300–292 Mya — about 6 occurrences292–285 Mya — about 26 occurrences285–277 Mya — about 13 occurrences277–270 Mya — about 9 occurrences270–262 Mya — about 3 occurrences262–254 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences254–247 Mya — about 2 occurrences461 Mya251.902 Mya476 Mya247 Mya

760 occurrences of Blastoidea on record, most of them in the Carboniferous. 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

760 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

180 formations

Bangor Limestone — 34.00°N, 86.10°WBangor Limestone — 34.45°N, 87.75°WBangor Limestone — 34.59°N, 87.63°WBangor Limestone — 34.52°N, 87.58°WGlen Dean Limestone — 36.87°N, 87.49°WGlen Dean Limestone — 37.48°N, 86.29°WGlen Dean Limestone — 38.37°N, 86.48°WGlen Dean Limestone — 38.50°N, 86.72°WGlen Dean Limestone — 38.40°N, 86.59°WGlen Dean Limestone — 38.24°N, 86.43°WGlen Dean Limestone — 38.17°N, 86.57°WGlen Dean Limestone — 38.10°N, 86.56°WGlen Dean Limestone — 37.87°N, 86.62°WGlen Dean Limestone — 37.83°N, 86.60°WGlen Dean Limestone — 37.65°N, 86.55°WGolconda — 38.30°N, 89.99°WGolconda — 38.66°N, 86.78°WGolconda — 38.37°N, 86.36°WGolconda — 38.30°N, 86.47°WGolconda — 38.22°N, 86.53°WGolconda — 38.21°N, 86.43°WGolconda — 38.10°N, 86.48°WGolconda — 38.04°N, 86.53°WGolconda — 37.99°N, 86.56°WGolconda — 37.93°N, 86.54°WFort Payne — 36.93°N, 84.97°WFort Payne — 36.71°N, 85.48°WFort Payne — 36.95°N, 85.01°WFort Payne — 36.75°N, 85.15°WFort Payne — 36.78°N, 85.10°WFort Payne — 36.72°N, 85.37°WFort Payne — 36.54°N, 85.13°WFort Payne — 36.56°N, 85.21°WFort Payne — 36.88°N, 85.06°WFort Payne — 33.57°N, 86.53°WBurlington — 39.43°N, 91.04°WBurlington — 40.81°N, 91.11°WBurlington — 37.18°N, 93.28°WBurlington — 39.67°N, 91.36°WBurlington — 39.44°N, 91.07°WBurlington — 39.93°N, 91.37°WBurlington — 37.32°N, 93.58°WHongguleleng — 46.75°N, 86.14°EHongguleleng — 46.60°N, 85.98°EHongguleleng — 46.75°N, 86.13°EHongguleleng — 46.75°N, 86.27°EHongguleleng — 46.62°N, 86.10°ESalem Limestone — 37.31°N, 85.44°WSalem Limestone — 37.78°N, 85.79°WSalem Limestone — 37.26°N, 85.34°WSalem Limestone — 37.18°N, 85.32°WSalem Limestone — 37.19°N, 85.37°WSalem Limestone — 37.55°N, 85.70°WSalem Limestone — 37.05°N, 85.05°WSalem Limestone — 38.06°N, 85.98°WSalem Limestone — 38.03°N, 86.03°WLudlowville — 42.76°N, 78.65°WLudlowville — 42.78°N, 78.86°WLudlowville — 42.80°N, 77.27°WLudlowville — 42.85°N, 78.37°WLudlowville — 42.73°N, 76.71°WLudlowville — 42.89°N, 77.36°WLudlowville — 42.78°N, 78.68°WLudlowville — 42.90°N, 78.20°WHaney Limestone — 37.37°N, 86.12°WHaney Limestone — 36.96°N, 86.84°WHaney Limestone — 36.92°N, 87.10°WHaney Limestone — 36.95°N, 87.09°WCallytharra — 25.88°S, 115.50°ECallytharra — 24.45°S, 115.32°EFort Payne Chert — 36.92°N, 84.96°WFort Payne Chert — 36.72°N, 85.45°WFort Payne Chert — 34.70°N, 85.23°WFort Payne Chert — 36.86°N, 85.13°WBanff — 52.25°N, 117.25°WBanff — 52.69°N, 117.52°WBanff — 54.43°N, 120.82°WOsgood Shale — 39.13°N, 85.30°WOsgood Shale — 39.00°N, 85.00°WWaldron Shale — 39.00°N, 86.00°WWaldron Shale — 39.45°N, 85.67°WBorden — 38.50°N, 85.92°WBorden — 36.44°N, 88.06°WBorden — 37.70°N, 85.87°WBeech Creek — 39.21°N, 86.82°WBeech Creek — 39.14°N, 86.87°WBeech Creek — 38.83°N, 86.69°WBeech Creek — 39.21°N, 86.88°WBeech Creek — 38.70°N, 86.76°WFraileys Shale — 39.00°N, 90.58°WFraileys Shale — 37.38°N, 88.48°WFraileys Shale — 37.53°N, 89.28°WFraileys Shale — 37.33°N, 88.50°WScotch Grove — 42.17°N, 91.11°WScotch Grove — 42.00°N, 91.00°WScotch Grove — 41.88°N, 90.55°WScotch Grove — 41.85°N, 90.18°WScotch Grove — 42.10°N, 91.28°WOsgood — 39.07°N, 85.25°WSilica — 41.72°N, 83.72°WSilica — 42.13°N, 83.60°WPella — 41.33°N, 92.38°WPella — 41.36°N, 92.63°WRacine — 42.73°N, 87.78°WRacine — 42.88°N, 88.04°WRacine — 43.01°N, 88.38°WLaurel Limestone — 39.43°N, 85.63°WWayne — 36.08°N, 87.00°WWayne — 35.38°N, 88.00°W

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The named rock units Blastoidea has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 156 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 44 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Blastoidea and its relatives

Carboniferous

Where Blastoidea and its relatives were recorded in the Carboniferous.

Found in the same rock

2,427 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 447 sites for Blastoidea, and this reads 240 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

173 references

Each of the 760 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. 161 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 content2

Picture of Blastoidea

Credit
Diego Delso
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

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 itBlastozoa through timeFormations of the CarboniferousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Say 1825