Metopaster

Metopaster is an extinct genus of sea star that lived from the Late Cretaceous to the Early Eocene. Its fossils have been found in Europe.

Metopaster

Ghedo · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
GoniasteridaePBDB
Diet
detritivorePBDB, for Goniasteridae
Life habit
epifaunalPBDB, for Goniasteridae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Goniasteridae
Vision
limitedPBDB, for Asteroidea
Environment
marinePBDB, for Goniasteridae

Time the record covers

At least 37 million years on record.

The record covers at least 93.9 Mya to 56 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 100.5 Mya to 48.07 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 0 of 110 occurrencesLate Cretaceous — about 101 of 110 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 7 of 110 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 2 of 110 occurrencesEocene102–100 Mya — about 1 occurrence100–98 Mya — about 2 occurrences98–96 Mya — about 2 occurrences96–94 Mya — about 2 occurrences94–92 Mya — about 5 occurrences92–91 Mya — about 5 occurrences91–89 Mya — about 6 occurrences89–87 Mya — about 7 occurrences87–85 Mya — about 8 occurrences85–83 Mya — about 8 occurrences83–82 Mya — about 3 occurrences82–80 Mya — about 3 occurrences80–78 Mya — about 3 occurrences78–76 Mya — about 3 occurrences76–74 Mya — about 3 occurrences74–72 Mya — about 3 occurrences72–71 Mya — about 9 occurrences71–69 Mya — about 10 occurrences69–67 Mya — about 10 occurrences67–65 Mya — about 7 occurrences65–63 Mya — about 3 occurrences63–62 Mya — about 3 occurrences56–54 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences54–52 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences52–51 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences51–49 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences49–47 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences93.9 Mya56 Mya102 Mya47 Mya

110 occurrences of Metopaster on record, most of them in the Late 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

110 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

18 formations

Maastricht — 50.85°N, 5.70°EMaastricht — 50.85°N, 6.77°EMaastricht — 50.86°N, 5.79°EGulpen — 50.73°N, 5.67°EGulpen — 50.75°N, 5.67°ECalcaires à Baculites — 49.43°N, 1.35°WBilá — 49.98°N, 15.60°EWhite Chalk — 54.52°N, 13.63°EHouthem — 50.87°N, 5.78°ECraie d'Eletot — 49.77°N, 0.42°ESables de Montormel — 48.97°N, 0.05°WCraie de Meudon — 48.82°N, 2.23°ELa Tonnelle — 46.85°N, 1.88°WWilmington Sands — 50.80°N, 0.18°EMarnes de Foncouverte — 43.15°N, 2.57°EMarnes de Foncouverte — 43.08°N, 2.50°EBryozoan Limestone — 55.28°N, 12.45°ECraie de Villedieu — 45.00°N, 0.37°EMaastricht — 50.80°N, 5.67°ECampanien 1-2 — 45.75°N, 0.47°WRipley — 35.32°N, 88.42°WAbderaz — 36.10°N, 60.72°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Metopaster has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 63 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Metopaster and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

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

Found in the same rock

888 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 74 sites for Metopaster, 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

18 references

Each of the 110 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. 6 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 Metopaster

Credit
Ghedo
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
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 itGoniasteridae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Sladen 1893