Onychaster

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
- OnychasteridaePBDB
- Diet
- suspension feederPBDB, for Phrynophiurida
- Life habit
- epifaunalPBDB, for Phrynophiurida
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Phrynophiurida
- Vision
- blindPBDB, for Ophiuroidea
- Environment
- marinePBDB, for Phrynophiurida
Time the record covers
At least 22 million years on record.
The record covers at least 358.86 Mya to 335.9 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 372.15 Mya to 330.3 Mya.
5 occurrences of Onychaster on record, most of them in the Carboniferous. 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
5 occurrences- Devonian40%
- Carboniferous60%
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
2 formations
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The named rock units Onychaster has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 3 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Onychaster and its relatives
CarboniferousWhere Onychaster and its relatives were recorded in the Carboniferous.
Found in the same rock
132 taxa- Decadocrinus3 sites
- Abatocrinus grandis2 sites
- Abrotocrinus2 sites
- Anthozoa2 sites
- Blastoidea2 sites
- Brachiopoda2 sites
- Bryozoa2 sites
- Chonetes2 sites
- Dizygocrinus2 sites
- Echinoconchus2 sites
- Fenestella2 sites
- Gilbertsocrinus tuberosus2 sites
- Platycrinites2 sites
- Punctospirifer2 sites
- Scytalocrinus2 sites
- Taxocrinus2 sites
- Acrocrinus1 site
- Aganaster gregarius1 site
- Allocatillocrinus1 site
- Ambocoelia1 site
- Amphissites1 site
- Amphissitidae1 site
- Anoplothecidae1 site
- Anthracospirifer1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 5 sites for Onychaster, 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
5 references- Early Carboniferous ophiuroids from Crawfordsville, Indiana1
- Oekologie und Fazies des juengsten Ober-Devon von Velbert (Rheinisches Schiefergebirge)1
- Ophiuren (Echinodermata) des hohen Oberdevons in nördlichen Rheinischen Schiefergebirge1
- A Mississippian Echinoderm Site in Alabama1
- The Berkeley crinoid collection from Crawsfordsville, Indiana1
Each of the 5 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 Onychaster
- Source
- iDigBio
- Credit
- via iDigBio
- 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 itOnychasteridae through timeFormations of the CarboniferousThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Meek and Worthen 1868