Mesopalaeaster

Mesopalaeaster

via iDigBio · CC0 · via iDigBio. 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
MesopalaeasteridaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Asteroidea
Life habit
low-level epifaunalPBDB, for Asteroidea
Motility
slow-movingPBDB, for Asteroidea
Vision
limitedPBDB, for Asteroidea
Environment
marinePBDB, for Echinodermata

Time the record covers

At least 9.4 million years on record.

The record covers at least 458.2 Mya to 448.8 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 468 Mya to 443.1 Mya.

Ordovician — about 20 of 20 occurrencesOrdovicianSilurian — about 0 of 20 occurrences469–468 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences468–467 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences467–466 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences466–465 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences465–464 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences464–463 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences463–462 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences462–462 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences462–461 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences461–460 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences460–459 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences459–458 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences458–457 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences457–456 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences456–456 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences456–455 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences455–454 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences454–453 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences453–452 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences452–451 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences451–450 Mya — about 3 occurrences450–450 Mya — about 4 occurrences450–449 Mya — about 1 occurrence449–448 Mya — about 2 occurrences448–447 Mya — about 2 occurrences447–446 Mya — about 2 occurrences446–445 Mya — about 1 occurrence445–444 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences444–443 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences443–443 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences458.2 Mya448.8 Mya468.5 Mya442.6 Mya

20 occurrences of Mesopalaeaster on record, most of them in the Ordovician. 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

20 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

16 formations

Kope — 39.00°N, 84.00°WFairview — 39.00°N, 84.00°WLexington Limestone — 37.64°N, 84.66°WLexington Limestone — 37.87°N, 84.63°WUtica Shale — 43.21°N, 75.46°WBellevue — 39.00°N, 84.00°WCorryville — 39.00°N, 84.00°WMount Auburn — 39.00°N, 84.00°WWaynesville — 39.00°N, 84.00°WLiberty — 39.00°N, 84.00°WWhitewater — 39.00°N, 84.00°WElkhorn — 39.00°N, 84.00°WArnheim — 39.00°N, 84.00°WMartinsburg — 40.48°N, 76.53°WSouth Threave — 55.29°N, 4.76°WClays Ferry — 38.38°N, 84.30°WBuilth Volcanic — 52.24°N, 3.28°W

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

Mesopalaeaster and its relatives

Ordovician

Where Mesopalaeaster and its relatives were recorded in the Ordovician.

Found in the same rock

491 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 19 sites for Mesopalaeaster, 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

7 references

Each of the 20 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 Mesopalaeaster

Source
iDigBio
Credit
via iDigBio
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Mesopalaeaster was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itMesopalaeasteridae through timeFormations of the OrdovicianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Schuchert 1914