Chiridotidae
Chiridotidae is a family of sea cucumbers found in the order Apodida. Within the family, there are 16 recognized genera all with different ranges of body types and functions. Sea cucumbers play a fundamental role in many marine ecosystems.

Image courtesy of Aquapix and Expedition to the Deep Slope 2007 · Public Domain · 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
- ApodidaPBDB
- Diet
- detritivorePBDB, for Apodida
- Life habit
- epifaunalPBDB, for Apodida
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Apodida
- Vision
- blindPBDB, for Holothuroidea
- Environment
- marinePBDB, for Echinodermata
Time the record covers
At least 283 million years on record.
The record covers at least 307 Mya to 23.04 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 315.2 Mya to 5.333 Mya.
190 occurrences of Chiridotidae on record, most of them in the Late Triassic. 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
190 occurrences- Carboniferousunder 1%
- Permian3%
- Middle Triassic25%
- Late Triassic39%
- Early Jurassic11%
- Middle Jurassic14%
- Late Jurassic5%
- Early Cretaceousunder 1%
- Late Cretaceous1%
- Eoceneunder 1%
- Miocene1%
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
25 formations
- Hallstätterkalk Formation16
- Karadagtepe Formation · Akgöl Group11
- Scheibelberg Formation10
- San Cassiano Formation8
- Korytnica Limestones Formation7
- Blue Lias Formation · Lias Group6
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The named rock units Chiridotidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. One further formation holds fewer occurrences and is not listed. 84 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Chiridotidae and its relatives
Late TriassicWhere Chiridotidae and its relatives were recorded in the Late Triassic.
Found in the same rock
883 taxa- Theelia44 sites
- Echinoidea25 sites
- Priscopedatus24 sites
- Achistrum monochordata23 sites
- Theelia immissorbicula22 sites
- Ophiuroidea21 sites
- Achistrum20 sites
- Crinoidea19 sites
- Nuculanidae17 sites
- Theelia convexa16 sites
- Staurocumites bartensteini15 sites
- Corbulidae14 sites
- Laevidentalium14 sites
- Binoculites terquemi13 sites
- Calclamna13 sites
- Dentalina12 sites
- Lenticulina12 sites
- Nodosaria12 sites
- Ophthalmidium12 sites
- Achistrum issleri11 sites
- Mathildidae11 sites
- Ammobaculites10 sites
- Astartidae10 sites
- Bralitzia10 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 95 sites for Chiridotidae, 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
40 references- Neue Holothurien-Sklerite aus der Trias der Slovakai23
- Palaeoenvironmental interpretation of echinoderm assemblages from Bathonian ore-bearing clays at Gnaszyn (Kraków-Silesia Homocline, Poland)18
- Holothurien-Sklerite aus der Mittel-Trias der Ostalpen15
- Holothurien-Sklerite und Conodonten aus der Mittel- und Obertrias von Köveskál (Balatonhochland, Ungarn)13
- The Norian-Rhaetian boundary in the light of micropaleontological data12
- New Stratigraphic and Palaeogeographic Results from the Palaeozoic and Early Mesozoic of the Middle Pontides (Northern Turkey) in the Azdavay, Devrekani, Küre and Inebolu Areas: Implications for the Carboniferous - Early Cretaceous Geodynamic Evolution and Some Related Remarks to the Karakaya Oceanic Rift Basin11
- Die Lias-beckenentwicklung der Unkener synklinale (nördliche Kalkalpen, salzburg) unter besonderer berücksichtigung der scheibelberg Formation10
- Holothurian sclerites and conodonts in the Upper Carnian (Tuvalian) and Norian Limestones in the Central Kamnik Alps9
- The Prati di Stuores/Stuores Wiesen Section (Dolomites, Italy): a candidate Global Stratotype Section and Point for the base of the Carnian stage.8
- Triassic microfossils from the Korytnica limestones at Liptovska (Slovakia, CSSR) and their stratigraphic significance7
- Holothurians in the Blue Lias of Southern Britain6
- Some Holothurian sclerites from the Corallian Group of north Dorset5
Each of the 190 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. 28 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 Chiridotidae
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Image courtesy of Aquapix and Expedition to the Deep Slope 2007
- Licence
- Public Domain
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Chiridotidae 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 itApodida through timeFormations of the Late TriassicThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Ostergren 1898