Ophiuroidea

Searched as Ophiuroidea indet.. The Paleobiology Database treats Ophiuroidea as the accepted name.

Brittle stars, serpent stars, or ophiuroids are echinoderms in the class Ophiuroidea. They crawl across the sea floor using their flexible arms for locomotion. The ophiuroids generally have five long, slender, whip-like arms which may reach up to 60 cm (24 in) in length on the largest specimens.

Ophiuroidea

Hans Hillewaert · 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
Also called
brittle starPBDB
Sits inside
AsterozoaPBDB
Diet
detritivore, suspension feederPBDB
Life habit
low-level epifaunalPBDB
Motility
slow-movingPBDB
Vision
blindPBDB
Environment
marinePBDB

Time the record covers

At least 452 million years on record.

The record covers at least 459.7 Mya to 7.246 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 468 Mya to 5.333 Mya.

Ordovician — about 4 of 165 occurrencesSilurian — about 5 of 165 occurrencesDevonian — about 10 of 165 occurrencesDevonianCarboniferous — about 35 of 165 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 0 of 165 occurrencesEarly Triassic — about 17 of 165 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 10 of 165 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 12 of 165 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 4 of 165 occurrencesMiddle Jurassic — about 29 of 165 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 7 of 165 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 10 of 165 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 9 of 165 occurrencesPaleocene — about 1 of 165 occurrencesEocene — about 8 of 165 occurrencesOligocene — about 2 of 165 occurrencesMiocene — about 2 of 165 occurrencesPliocene — about 0 of 165 occurrencesPleistocene — about 0 of 165 occurrences477–461 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences461–445 Mya — about 2 occurrences445–430 Mya — about 3 occurrences430–414 Mya — about 6 occurrences414–398 Mya — about 3 occurrences398–382 Mya — about 4 occurrences366–350 Mya — about 4 occurrences350–334 Mya — about 12 occurrences334–318 Mya — about 20 occurrences318–302 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences302–286 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences255–239 Mya — about 25 occurrences239–223 Mya — about 11 occurrences223–207 Mya — about 1 occurrence207–191 Mya — about 4 occurrences191–175 Mya — about 3 occurrences175–159 Mya — about 29 occurrences159–143 Mya — about 7 occurrences143–127 Mya — about 6 occurrences127–111 Mya — about 2 occurrences111–95 Mya — about 3 occurrences95–80 Mya — about 5 occurrences80–64 Mya — about 3 occurrences64–48 Mya — about 2 occurrences48–32 Mya — about 7 occurrences32–16 Mya — about 3 occurrences16–0 Mya — about 1 occurrence459.7 Mya7.246 Mya477 Mya0 Mya

165 occurrences of Ophiuroidea on record, most of them in the Carboniferous. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. 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

165 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

60 formations

Bangor Limestone — 34.59°N, 87.63°WBangor Limestone — 34.52°N, 87.58°WSzin Marl — 48.47°N, 20.68°ECassian — 46.51°N, 11.95°ECassian — 46.52°N, 11.93°ECassian — 46.60°N, 12.26°ELochkov — 50.03°N, 14.33°ELochkov — 49.98°N, 14.18°EBorden — 36.44°N, 88.06°WTraveston — 26.25°S, 152.72°ELiard — 56.16°N, 122.55°WLiard — 56.10°N, 122.87°WThaynes — 40.37°N, 114.83°WThaynes — 41.27°N, 114.20°WBilá — 49.98°N, 15.60°EAvon Park — 29.01°N, 82.65°WCozy Dell — 34.54°N, 119.25°WCozy Dell — 34.55°N, 119.23°WBrazer Dolomite — 40.16°N, 110.40°WLewis Shale — 43.27°N, 104.27°WKiowa — 38.75°N, 97.79°WPorters Creek — 31.90°N, 86.88°WRockford Limestone — 38.48°N, 85.75°WYan Yean — 34.08°S, 151.02°EMount Ida — 36.77°S, 144.77°ECatavi — 17.40°S, 66.15°WLaurel — 39.50°N, 85.47°WRochester Shale — 43.03°N, 79.28°WHogklint — 57.57°N, 18.30°EMarks Head — 28.87°N, 82.46°WSmeltertown — 31.45°N, 106.55°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Ophiuroidea has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 36 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 57 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Ophiuroidea and its relatives

Carboniferous

Where Ophiuroidea and its relatives were recorded in the Carboniferous.

Found in the same rock

2,761 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 584 sites for Ophiuroidea, and this reads 240 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

77 references

Each of the 165 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. 65 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 content2

Picture of Ophiuroidea

Credit
Hans Hillewaert
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC0 Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

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

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 itAsterozoa through timeFormations of the CarboniferousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Gray 1840)