Hostname: page-component-7dd5485656-kp629 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-11-02T16:56:56.625Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Two new multiarmed Paleozoic (Mississippian) asteroids (Echinodermata) and some paleobiologic implications

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 May 2016

Daniel B. Blake  and
Thomas E. Guensburg
Daniel B. Blake
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Illinois, Urbana 61801
Thomas E. Guensburg
Affiliation:
Department of Geography and Earth Science, Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville 62026
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Lacertasterias elegans and Schondorfia fungosa are new genera and species of multiarmed asteroids described from the Kinderhookian? (Mississippian) Gilmore City Formation of Iowa and the Chesterian (Mississippian) Haney Formation of Illinois, respectively. Based on ambulacral construction, the former belongs to the Paleozoic asteroid stem group whereas the latter is distinct from but closer to post-Paleozoic asteroids.

The multiarmed condition is atypical today; nevertheless, multiarmed species are morphologically varied and taxonomically widely distributed. The condition is considered problematic; it is uncertain whether or not multiarmed organization is adaptively neutral. Although only convergent with rather than ancestral to post-Paleozoic multiarmed asteroids, both new genera share important similarities with modern multiarmed predators, implying a predatory life mode for the fossils. The similarity between phylogenetically disparate Paleozoic and post-Paleozoic asteroids implies the multiarmed condition is beneficial, and benefits endured in spite of the major biotic changes that occurred around the end of the Paleozoic.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 63 , Issue 3 , May 1989 , pp. 331 - 340
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Binyon, J. 1964. On the functioning of the water vascular system of Asterias rubens L. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 44:577–588.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blake, D. B. 1983. Fossil sea-stars (abstract). Bulletin of Marine Science, 33:777.Google Scholar
Blake, D. B. 1987. A classification and phylogeny of post-Paleozoic sea stars (Asteroidea; Echinodermata). Journal of Natural History, 21:481–528.Google Scholar
Blake, D. B. 1989. Asteroidea: functional morphology, classification and phylogeny. In Jangoux, M. and Lawrence, J. (eds.), Echinoderm Studies 3. A. A. Balkema, Rotterdam, 3:179–223.Google Scholar
Blake, D. B., and Guensburg, T. E. 1988. The water vascular system and functional morphology of Paleozoic asteroids. Lethaia, 20:189–206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clarke, J. M. 1908. A Devonic brittle-star. Bulletin of the New York State Museum, 121:61–64.Google Scholar
Downey, M. E. 1986. Revision of the Atlantic Brisingida (Echinodermata: Asteroidea), with description of a new genus and family. Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology, 435, 58 p.Google Scholar
Fell, H. B. 1963. The phylogeny of sea-stars. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, ser. B, 246:381–435.Google Scholar
Gale, A. S. 1987. Phylogeny and classification of the Asteroidea (Echinodermata). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 89:107–132.Google Scholar
Hotchkiss, F. H. C. 1976. Devonian ophiuroids from New York State: reclassification of Klasmura, Antiquaster, and Stenaster into the suborder Scalarina no v., order Stenurida. Bulletin of the New York State Museum, 425, 40 p.Google Scholar
Jangoux, M. 1982a. Digestive systems: Asteroidea, p. 235–272. In Jangoux, M. and Lawrence, J. M. (eds.), Echinoderm Nutrition. A. A. Balkema, Rotterdam.Google Scholar
Jangoux, M. 1982b. Food and feeding mechanisms: Asteroidea, p. 117–160. In Jangoux, M. and Lawrence, J. M. (eds.), Echinoderm Nutrition. A. A. Balkema, Rotterdam.Google Scholar
Kesling, R. V. 1964. A drastic reappraisal of “Lepidasterella babcocki Schuchert” as Helianthaster gyalinus Clarke, a streptophiuran auluroid. Contributions from the Museum of Paleontology, The University of Michigan, 19:115–133.Google Scholar
Kesling, R. V. 1971. Michiganaster inexpectatus, a new many-armed starfish from the Middle Devonian Rogers City Limestone of Michigan. Contributions from the Museum of Paleontology, The University of Michigan, 23:247–262.Google Scholar
Kesling, R. V. 1982. Arkonaster, a new multi-armed starfish from the Middle Devonian Arkona Shale of Ontario. Contributions from the Museum of Paleontology, The University of Michigan, 26:83–115.Google Scholar
Lambert, P. 1981. The Sea Stars of British Columbia. British Columbia Provincial Museum Handbook, 39, 152 p.Google Scholar
Lawrence, J. 1987. Une histoire de deux étoiles: l'effet du nombre des bras sur la biologic Societe des Sciences Naturelles de L'Quest de la France, Bulletin Supplement, 1987:59–61.Google Scholar
Lawrence, J. 1988. Functional consequences of the multiarmed condition in asteroids. Abstracts and Programs, Sixth International Echinoderm Conference, University of Victoria, British Columbia, unpaginated.Google Scholar
Lehmann, W. M. 1957. Die Asterozoen in den Dachschiefern des rheinischen Unterdevons. Hessischen Landesamtes für Bodenforschung, Abhandlungen 21, 160 p.Google Scholar
Ludwig, H. 1905. Asteroidea. Memoirs of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, 32, 292 p.Google Scholar
McKnight, D. G. 1975. Classification of somasteroids and asteroids (Asterozoa: Echinodermata). Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, 5:13–19.Google Scholar
Prusch, R. D., and Whoriskey, F. 1976. Maintenance of fluid volume in the starfish water vascular system. Nature, 5569:577–578.Google Scholar
Roemer, F. 1863. Neue Asteriden und Crinoiden aus devonischem Dachschiefer von Bundenbach bei Birkenfeld. Palaeontographica, 9:143–152.Google Scholar
Rollins, H. B., and Brezinski, D. K. 1988. Reinterpretation of crinoid–platyeratid interaction. Lethaia, 20:207–217.Google Scholar
Romanes, G. J., and Cossar, J. 1881. Observations on the locomotor system of Echinodermata. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, London, 3:829–886.Google Scholar
Schöndorf, F. 1909a. Paläozoische Seesterne Deutschlands. I. Die echten Asteriden der Rheinischen Grauwacke. Palaeontographica, 65:37–112.Google Scholar
Schöndorf, F. 1909b. Die Asteriden des Russischen Karbon. Palaeontographica, 65:323–338.Google Scholar
Schöndorf, F. 1910. Über einige “Ophiuride und Asteriden” des englischen Silur und ihre Bedeutung für die Systematik paläozoischer Seesterne. Jahrbüchern des Nassauischen Vereins für Naturkunde in Wiesbaden, 63:206–256.Google Scholar
Schuchert, C. 1914. Stelleroidea Palaeozoica. Fossilium Catalogus, I. Animalia, Pars 3. W. Junk, Berlin, 55 p.Google Scholar
Schöndorf, F. 1915. Revision of Paleozoic Stelleroidea with special reference to North America Asteroidea. Bulletin of the U.S. National Museum, 88, 312 p.Google Scholar
Spencer, W. K. 1916. British Palaeozoic Asterozoa. Palaeontographical Society of London Memoir, p. 57–108.Google Scholar
Spencer, W. K. 1918. British Palaeozoic Asterozoa. Palaeontographical Society of London Memoir, p. 109–168.Google Scholar
Spencer, W. K. 1925. British Palaeozoic Asterozoa. Palaeontographical Society of London Memoir, p. 237–324.Google Scholar
Spencer, W. K. 1927. British Palaeozoic Asterozoa. Palaeontographical Society of London Memoir, p. 325–388.Google Scholar
Spencer, W. K. 1930. British Palaeozoic Asterozoa. Palaeontographical Society of London Memoir, p. 389–436.Google Scholar
Spencer, W. K. 1951. Early Palaeozoic starfish. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, ser. B, 235:87–130.Google Scholar
Spencer, W. K., and Wright, C. W. 1966. Asterozoans, p. U4–U107. In Moore, R. C. (ed.), Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, Pt. U, Echinodermata 3. Geological Society of America and University of Kansas Press, Lawrence.Google Scholar
Ubaghs, G. 1967. General characters of Echinodermata, p. S60–S85. In Moore, R. C. (ed.), Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, Pt. S, Echinodermata 1. Geological Society of America and University of Kansas Press, Lawrence.Google Scholar
Verrill, A. E. 1909. Remarkable development of starfishes on the northwest American coast; hybridism; multiplicity of rays; teratology; problems in evolution; geographical distribution. American Naturalist, 43:542–555.Google Scholar
Welch, J. R. 1984. The asteroid Lepidasterella montanensis n. sp., from the Upper Mississippian Bear Gulch Limestone of Montana. Journal of Paleontology, 58:843–851.Google Scholar