Dendraster ashleyi

Dendraster ashleyi is an extinct species of echinoderm of the family Dendrasteridae. Fossil of this species have been found in the Pliocene of California, about 5 Mya. They reach a diameter of about 3.5 cm.

Dendraster ashleyi

Hectonichus · 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
DendrasterPBDB
Diet
detritivorePBDB, for Clypeasteroida
Life habit
semi-infaunalPBDB, for Clypeasteroida
Motility
slow-movingPBDB, for Clypeasteroida
Vision
limitedPBDB, for Echinoidea
Environment
marinePBDB, for Echinodermata

Time the record covers

At least 1 million years on record.

The record covers at least 3.6 Mya to 2.58 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 5.333 Mya to 1.8 Mya.

Miocene — about 0 of 34 occurrencesPliocene — about 4 of 34 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 30 of 34 occurrencesPleistocene5.4–5.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.2–5.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.1–4.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.9–4.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.8–4.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.6–4.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.5–4.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.3–4.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.2–4.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.0–3.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.9–3.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.7–3.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.6–3.4 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences3.4–3.3 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences3.3–3.1 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences3.1–3.0 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences3.0–2.8 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.8–2.7 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.7–2.5 Mya — about 3 occurrences2.5–2.4 Mya — about 6 occurrences2.4–2.2 Mya — about 6 occurrences2.2–2.1 Mya — about 6 occurrences2.1–1.9 Mya — about 6 occurrences1.9–1.8 Mya — about 4 occurrences3.6 Mya2.58 Mya5.83 Mya1.3 Mya

34 occurrences of Dendraster ashleyi on record. 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

34 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

3 formations

Careaga Sandstone — 34.74°N, 120.41°WCareaga Sandstone — 34.88°N, 120.51°WPico — 34.36°N, 118.56°WEtchegoin — 34.84°N, 120.41°W

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The named rock units Dendraster ashleyi has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Found in the same rock

129 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 33 sites for Dendraster ashleyi, 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

4 references

Each of the 34 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 Dendraster ashleyi

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

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itDendraster through timeThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Arnold 1907)