Echinacea

The Echinacea are a superorder of sea urchins. They are distinguished by the presence of a rigid test, with ten buccal plates around the mouth, and solid spines. Unlike some other sea urchins, they also possess gills. The group is a large one, with species found worldwide.

Echinacea

Marco Busdraghi · 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
EuechinoideaPBDB
Diet
grazer, deposit feederPBDB, for Echinoidea
Life habit
epifaunalPBDB, for Echinoidea
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Echinoidea
Vision
limitedPBDB, for Echinoidea
Environment
marinePBDB, for Echinodermata

Time the record covers

At least 372 million years on record.

The record covers at least 372.15 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 382.31 Mya to 0 Mya.

Devonian — about 5 of 658 occurrencesCarboniferous — about 0 of 658 occurrencesPermian — about 2 of 658 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 0 of 658 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 1 of 658 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 4 of 658 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 5 of 658 occurrencesMiddle Jurassic — about 22 of 658 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 28 of 658 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 91 of 658 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 160 of 658 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 5 of 658 occurrencesEocene — about 39 of 658 occurrencesOligocene — about 20 of 658 occurrencesMiocene — about 87 of 658 occurrencesPliocene — about 52 of 658 occurrencesPleistocene — about 118 of 658 occurrences390–377 Mya — about 3 occurrences377–364 Mya — about 2 occurrences273–260 Mya — about 2 occurrences247–234 Mya — about 1 occurrence234–221 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences208–195 Mya — about 4 occurrences195–182 Mya — about 1 occurrence182–169 Mya — about 7 occurrences169–156 Mya — about 26 occurrences156–143 Mya — about 20 occurrences143–130 Mya — about 23 occurrences130–117 Mya — about 47 occurrences117–104 Mya — about 20 occurrences104–91 Mya — about 77 occurrences91–78 Mya — about 15 occurrences78–65 Mya — about 70 occurrences65–52 Mya — about 9 occurrences52–39 Mya — about 22 occurrences39–26 Mya — about 25 occurrences26–13 Mya — about 55 occurrences13–0 Mya — about 228 occurrences372.15 Mya11.7 ka390 Mya0 Mya

658 occurrences of Echinacea on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. 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

658 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

176 formations

Maastricht — 50.85°N, 5.70°EMaastricht — 50.85°N, 6.77°EMaastricht — 50.85°N, 5.77°EMaastricht — 50.86°N, 5.79°EMaastricht — 51.22°N, 5.75°EMaastricht — 50.87°N, 5.98°EMaastricht — 50.83°N, 5.64°ESimsima — 24.87°N, 55.95°ESimsima — 24.89°N, 55.93°EUnnamed — 33.24°N, 119.51°WUnnamed — 33.24°N, 119.55°WYorktown — 35.36°N, 76.82°WYorktown — 36.99°N, 76.61°WYorktown — 37.06°N, 76.33°WYorktown — 36.86°N, 76.58°WGalala — 30.38°N, 33.52°EGalala — 29.28°N, 34.72°EDhruma — 24.23°N, 46.58°EDhruma — 24.89°N, 46.58°EDhruma — 25.33°N, 45.50°EDhruma — 25.53°N, 45.00°EDhruma — 25.05°N, 45.67°EDhruma — 25.38°N, 45.38°ECastle Hayne — 34.64°N, 77.65°WCastle Hayne — 34.37°N, 77.86°WCastle Hayne — 34.97°N, 78.05°WCastle Hayne — 34.36°N, 77.82°WCastle Hayne — 34.27°N, 77.95°WNdalithoni Limestone — 17.23°S, 178.95°ECotinguiba — 10.76°S, 37.07°WCotinguiba — 11.29°S, 37.38°WCotinguiba — 10.63°S, 36.95°WNarita — 35.35°N, 140.10°ENarita — 35.73°N, 140.46°ENarita — 35.72°N, 140.40°ESantee Limestone — 33.33°N, 80.15°WSantee Limestone — 33.33°N, 79.69°WSantee Limestone — 33.38°N, 80.15°WSantee Limestone — 33.35°N, 80.25°WMaastricht — 50.80°N, 5.67°EMaastricht — 50.83°N, 5.64°ERaha — 30.00°N, 32.67°ERaha — 28.65°N, 33.24°EBorutta — 40.83°N, 8.43°EPalos Verdes Sand — 33.99°N, 118.45°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.60°N, 117.88°WKanawa Limestones — 10.30°N, 11.38°EKanawa Limestones — 10.50°N, 11.84°ESan Julian — 46.87°S, 66.95°WSan Julian — 47.08°S, 66.70°WCasamayor — 47.72°S, 66.70°WMarno-calcaires à Heteraster oblongus — 38.77°N, 9.30°WMénaka — 19.22°N, 0.35°EMénaka — 16.75°N, 2.50°EMénaka — 16.61°N, 2.41°EMénaka — 16.49°N, 2.28°EWata — 28.65°N, 33.24°EWata — 29.67°N, 34.50°EWata — 30.37°N, 34.45°ECabo de Lata — 43.49°N, 3.81°WSan Pedro Sand — 33.74°N, 118.28°WKattendijk, Lillo — 51.25°N, 4.28°E

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The named rock units Echinacea has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 152 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 272 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Echinacea and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

3,546 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 449 sites for Echinacea, 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

219 references

Each of the 658 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. 207 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 Echinacea

Credit
Marco Busdraghi
Licence
CC BY 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itEuechinoidea through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Claus 1876)