Discoaster

Searched as Discoaster saipanensis. The Paleobiology Database treats Discoaster as the accepted name.

Discoaster is a genus of extinct star-shaped marine algae, with calcareous exoskeletons of between 5-40 μm across that are abundant as nanofossils in tropical deep-ocean deposits of Neogene age. Discoaster belongs to the haptophytes. About 100 species can be recognized.

Discoaster

Hannes Grobe ( talk ), Alfred Wegener Institute · CC BY 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
PrymnesiophycidaePBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB, for Haptophyta
Life habit
planktonic, depth=surfacePBDB, for Haptophyta
Motility
passively mobilePBDB, for Haptophyta
Environment
oceanic,oligotrophic,marine,brackishPBDB, for Haptophyta

Time the record covers

At least 61 million years on record.

The record covers at least 61.66 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 66 Mya to 0 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 0 of 413 occurrencesPaleocene — about 3 of 413 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 351 of 413 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 18 of 413 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 31 of 413 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 3 of 413 occurrencesPleistocene — about 8 of 413 occurrences67–65 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences65–63 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences63–61 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences61–58 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences58–56 Mya — about 1 occurrence56–54 Mya — about 8 occurrences54–52 Mya — about 8 occurrences52–49 Mya — about 8 occurrences49–47 Mya — about 19 occurrences47–45 Mya — about 33 occurrences45–43 Mya — about 33 occurrences43–40 Mya — about 55 occurrences40–38 Mya — about 67 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 60 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 62 occurrences34–31 Mya — about 3 occurrences31–29 Mya — about 2 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 3 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 5 occurrences25–22 Mya — about 4 occurrences22–20 Mya — about 3 occurrences20–18 Mya — about 3 occurrences18–16 Mya — about 3 occurrences16–13 Mya — about 3 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 4 occurrences11–9.0 Mya — about 5 occurrences9.0–6.7 Mya — about 5 occurrences6.7–4.5 Mya — about 3 occurrences4.5–2.2 Mya — about 4 occurrences2.2–0 Mya — about 7 occurrences61.66 Mya129 ka67 Mya0 Mya

413 occurrences of Discoaster on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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

413 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

7 formations

Wadi Esh-Shallala — 31.57°N, 37.12°EBrockenhurst Beds — 50.82°N, 1.57°WKoun — 40.50°N, 49.53°ELangental Beds — 27.40°S, 15.41°EKuma — 44.74°N, 33.88°EPedro Luro — 39.71°S, 61.04°WCastle Hayne — 34.37°N, 77.84°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Discoaster has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 406 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Discoaster and its relatives

Eocene

Where Discoaster and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

593 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records at least 838 sites for Discoaster, 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

36 references

Each of the 413 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. 24 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 Discoaster

Credit
Hannes Grobe ( talk ), Alfred Wegener Institute
Licence
CC BY 3.0
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 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 itPrymnesiophycidae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Tan 1902