Metopaster uncatus
via GBIF · CC0 · via GBIF. 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
- MetopasterPBDB
- 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 17 million years on record.
The record covers at least 89.8 Mya to 72.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 93.9 Mya to 66 Mya.
10 occurrences of Metopaster uncatus 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
10 occurrences- Late Cretaceous100%
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
3 formations
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The named rock units Metopaster uncatus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 7 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Metopaster uncatus and its relatives
Late CretaceousWhere Metopaster uncatus and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.
Found in the same rock
121 taxa- Metopaster parkinsoni6 sites
- Valettaster ocellatus6 sites
- Manfredaster bulbiferus5 sites
- Pycinaster angustatus5 sites
- Crateraster quinqueloba4 sites
- Metopaster hunteri4 sites
- Valettaster argus4 sites
- Arthraster cristatus2 sites
- Arthraster dixoni2 sites
- Aspidaster2 sites
- Asteriidae2 sites
- Cidaridae2 sites
- Crinoidea2 sites
- Gavelinella2 sites
- Hadranderaster simplex2 sites
- Hagenowia2 sites
- Lophidiaster ornatus2 sites
- Manfredaster senonensis2 sites
- Micraster2 sites
- Nymphaster humilis2 sites
- Porosphaera2 sites
- Reussella2 sites
- Valettaster2 sites
- Amphiura plana1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 10 sites for Metopaster uncatus, 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
3 references- Les Goniasteridae (Asteroidea, Echinodermata) jurassiques et crétacés de France. Taphonomie, systématique, biostratigraphie, paléobiogéographie, évolution.7
- Les stelléridés mésozoïques du bassin de Paris2
- Late Cretaceous-Early Paleocene echinoderms and the K/T boundary in the southeast Netherlands and the northeast Belgium. - part 5: Asteroids1
Each of the 10 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. Each entry links to the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.
Media and terms
Media content1
Picture of Metopaster uncatus
- Source
- GBIF
- Credit
- via GBIF
- Licence
- CC0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.
This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.
Keep going
What may have been alongside itMetopaster through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Forbes 1848)