PBDB Taxon

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Morphology	Ecology and taphonomy	External Literature Search	Age range and collections

Testudinaster

Asteroidea - Valvatida - Sphaerasteridae

Taxonomy

Testudinaster was named by Hess (1983) [Sepkoski's age data: J Bajo-u]. It is not extant. Its type is Testudinaster peregrinus.

It was assigned to Asterinidae by Hess (1983); to Valvatida by Sepkoski (2002); and to Sphaerasteridae by Hess (1994) and Gale (2021).

Species

T. peregrinus (type species)

Synonymy list

Year	Name and author
1983	Testudinaster Hess p. 919
1994	Testudinaster Hess p. 988
2002	Testudinaster Sepkoski
2021	Testudinaster Gale p. 721

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

Rank	Name	Author
class	Asteroidea
subclass	Ambuloasteroidea
infraclass	Neoasteroidea	()
superorder	Valvatacea
order	Valvatida
family	Sphaerasteridae
genus	Testudinaster

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. †Testudinaster Hess 1983

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†Testudinaster peregrinus Hess 1983

Diagnosis

Reference	Diagnosis
H. Hess 1994	Body form pentagonal, highly inflated, domed. Oral face flat. Marginal plates not differentiated. Both sides completely covered with closely set ossicles, indented for papulae. Dorsal plates around center of disc irregularly polygonal, some indented for papulae, but most of them closely inter-fingered. Other abactinal plates transversally elongate and high, arranged in regular rows. Spines absent from abactinals. Actinals radially elongate, imbricated in central area and very high towards margin, surface covered with granules. Adambulacrals compact, not projecting into furrow, with tuft of small spines.
A.S. Gale 2021	Sphaerasterida in which the abactinal surface is made up of numerous, rather small polygonal ossicles. Actinal ossicles small, very numerous, rounded or rhombic in outline, and very thick

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: Late/Upper Bajocian or 171.60000 to 167.70000 Ma

Collections: one only

Time interval	Ma	Country or state	Original ID and collection number
Late/Upper Bajocian	171.6 - 167.7	Switzerland	T. peregrinus (32036)