PBDB Taxon

Basic info	Taxonomic history	Classification	Included Taxa
Morphology	Ecology and taphonomy	External Literature Search	Age range and collections

Petraster

Asteroidea - Euaxosida - Palasterinidae

Taxonomy

Petraster was named by Billings (1858) [Sepkoski's age data: O Aren-l O Ashg-m Sepkoski's reference number: 1066]. Its type is Palasterina rigidus. It is the type genus of Petrasteridae.

It was assigned to Pustulosida by Sepkoski (2002); to Asteroidea by Dean Shackleton (2005); to Petrasteridae by Spencer (1951), Owen (1965), Spencer and Wright (1966) and Blake et al. (2016); and to Palasterinidae by Schuchert (1915), Withers and Keble (1934) and Blake (2018).

Species

P. americanus (syn. Palasterina jamesi, Asterias anthonii), P. angustior, P. crozonensis, P. kinahani, P. richi, P. rigidus, P. smythi, Uranaster ramseyensis

Synonyms

Uranaster was named by Gregory (1899).

It was synonymized subjectively with Petraster by Owen (1965), Spencer and Wright (1966), Dean Shackleton (2005) and Blake et al. (2016).

It was assigned to Palasterinidae by Gregory (1899) and Schuchert (1915); and to Uranasteridae by Spencer (1916).

Synonymy list

Year	Name and author
1858	Petraster Billings p. 79
1899	Uranaster Gregory p. 347
1915	Petraster Schuchert pp. 138-141
1915	Uranaster Schuchert pp. 154-155
1916	Uranaster Spencer p. 105
1934	Petraster Withers and Keble p. 227
1951	Petraster Spencer p. 123
1965	Petraster Owen p. 567
1966	Petraster Spencer and Wright p. U43
2002	Petraster Sepkoski
2005	Petraster Dean Shackleton p. 91
2016	Petraster Blake et al. p. 167
2018	Petraster Blake p. 28

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Rank	Name	Author
kingdom	Animalia	()
—	Bilateria
—	Eubilateria	Ax 1987
—	Deuterostomia
—	Ambulacraria
phylum	Echinodermata

Rank	Name	Author
subphylum	Eleutherozoa
—	Asterozoa	()
class	Asteroidea
order	Euaxosida
family	Palasterinidae
genus	Petraster

If no rank is listed, the taxon is considered an unranked clade in modern classifications. Ranks may be repeated or presented in the wrong order because authors working on different parts of the classification may disagree about how to rank taxa.

G. †Petraster Billings 1858

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†Petraster americanus d'Orbigny 1850

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Invalid names: Asterias anthonii Dana 1863 [synonym], Palasterina jamesi Dana 1863 [synonym]

†Petraster angustior Withers and Keble 1934

†Petraster crozonensis Blake et al. 2016

†Petraster kinahani Baily 1878

†Petraster richi Withers and Keble 1934

†Petraster rigidus Billings 1857

†Petraster smythi McCoy 1874

Invalid names: Uranaster Gregory 1899 [synonym]

Diagnosis

Reference	Diagnosis
J. Dean Shackleton 2005	Inferomarginals with virgal-like facets; actinals present; buccal slits present; axillary trapezoidal.

Measurements

No measurements are available

Composition:

high Mg calcitec

Ontogeny:

accretion, addition of partsp

Environment:

marinep

Locomotion:

slow-movingc

Life habit:

low-level epifaunalc

Diet:

carnivorec

Vision:

limitedc

Dispersal:

waterp

Dispersal 2:

planktonicp

Created:

2004-02-28 15:35:10

Modified:

2010-02-09 06:02:08

Source: c = class, p = phylum

References: Aberhan 1992, Aberhan et al. 2004

Age range: base of the Maysvillian to the top of the Ludlow or 450.20000 to 423.00000 Ma

Collections (8 total)

Time interval	Ma	Country or state	Original ID and collection number
Blackriveran	457.3 - 449.6	USA (Oklahoma)	P. sp. (24102)
Katian	453.0 - 445.2	France	P. crozonensis (216841)
Maysvillian	450.2 - 449.6	USA (Ohio)	P. sp. (388)
Maysvillian - Ashgill	450.2 - 443.7	USA (Ohio)	P. sp. (390)
Richmondian - Ashgill	449.6 - 443.7	USA (Ohio)	P. sp. (392 393 394)
Ludlow	427.4 - 423.0	Australia (Victoria)	P. sp. (495)