Heteraster

Heteraster is an extinct genus of sea urchins belonging to the family Toxasteridae.

Heteraster

Falconaumanni · 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
ToxasteridaePBDB
Diet
deposit feeder, detritivorePBDB, for Spatangoida
Life habit
shallow infaunalPBDB, for Spatangoida
Motility
slow-movingPBDB, for Spatangoida
Vision
limitedPBDB, for Echinoidea
Environment
marinePBDB, for Spatangoida

Time the record covers

At least 32 million years on record.

The record covers at least 132.6 Mya to 100.5 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 161.5 Mya to 93.9 Mya.

Middle Jurassic — about 0 of 64 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 1 of 64 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 61 of 64 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 2 of 64 occurrencesLate Cretaceous163–161 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences161–158 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences158–156 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences156–153 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences153–151 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences151–149 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences149–146 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences146–144 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences144–142 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences142–139 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences139–137 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences137–135 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences135–132 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences132–130 Mya — about 1 occurrence130–128 Mya — about 1 occurrence128–125 Mya — about 2 occurrences125–123 Mya — about 6 occurrences123–121 Mya — about 9 occurrences121–118 Mya — about 11 occurrences118–116 Mya — about 9 occurrences116–114 Mya — about 9 occurrences114–111 Mya — about 7 occurrences111–109 Mya — about 3 occurrences109–107 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences107–104 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences104–102 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences102–100 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences100–97 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences97–95 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences95–93 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences132.6 Mya100.5 Mya163 Mya93 Mya

64 occurrences of Heteraster on record, most of them in the Early Cretaceous. 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

64 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

17 formations

Inca — 7.45°S, 78.18°WAssises à Orbitolines — 38.81°N, 9.47°WAssises à Orbitolines — 39.13°N, 8.92°WCalcaires et marnes à Choffatelles — 38.85°N, 9.33°WCalcaires et marnes à Choffatelles — 38.40°N, 9.22°WMarno-calcaires à Heteraster oblongus — 38.85°N, 9.33°WCalcaires récifaux — 38.81°N, 9.47°Wcalcaires à Choffatelles et Dasycladacées — 38.73°N, 9.47°Wcalcaires à Choffatelles et Dasycladacées — 38.78°N, 9.28°WCalcaires récifaux supérieurs — 38.85°N, 9.33°WQishn — 14.30°N, 48.49°ECamadas de Almargem — 38.80°N, 9.38°WCapas Rojas — 40.61°N, 0.13°WCumburindio — 18.52°N, 100.95°WPerte-du-Rhône — 45.33°N, 5.82°ERisan Aneiza — 30.79°N, 33.48°EValea Minusului — 45.02°N, 21.88°EPabellón — 27.84°S, 70.32°WNantoco — 28.10°S, 70.56°WPunta del Cobre — 28.11°S, 70.57°W

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The named rock units Heteraster has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 33 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Heteraster and its relatives

Early Cretaceous

Where Heteraster and its relatives were recorded in the Early Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

347 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 49 sites for Heteraster, 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

20 references

Each of the 64 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. 8 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 Heteraster

Credit
Falconaumanni
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 itToxasteridae through timeFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0.