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Genus of starfishes From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Heliaster is a genus of Asteroidea (sea stars) in the family Heliasteridae.[1]
Heliaster Temporal range: Pliocene to present | |
---|---|
Heliaster microbrachius | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Echinodermata |
Class: | Asteroidea |
Order: | Forcipulatida |
Family: | Heliasteridae |
Genus: | Heliaster Gray, 1840 |
Image | Scientific name | Distribution |
---|---|---|
Heliaster canopus Perrier, 1875 | South Pacific Ocean[2] | |
Heliaster cumingi (Gray, 1840) | Gulf of California [3] | |
Heliaster helianthus (Lamarck, 1816) | southeastern Pacific Ocean[4] | |
Heliaster kubiniji Xantus, 1860 | eastern Pacific Ocean[5] | |
Heliaster microbrachius Xantus, 1860 | east Pacific[6] | |
Heliaster polybrachius H.L. Clark, 1907 | Gulf of California[7] | |
Heliaster solaris A.H. Clark, 1920 | Española Island in the Galápagos Islands. [3] | |
Whole specimens of Heliaster microbrachius have been found preserved in calcite-cemented quartz in Southwest Florida that dates to the Pliocene, 3.5 to 2.5 million years ago (Castilla et al. 2013). Today H. microbrachius is found only in the Pacific Ocean: on the coast of Panama, and Acapulco in Mexico. This suggests that greater connection between the two oceans gave the species a more extensive range in the past (Castilla et al. 2013).
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