Heliaster
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  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Echinodermata |
| Class: | Asteroidea |
| Order: | Forcipulatida |
| Family: | Heliasteridae |
| Genus: | Heliaster Gray, 1840 |
Species
| Image | Scientific name | Distribution |
|---|---|---|
| Heliaster canopus Perrier, 1875 | South Pacific Ocean[2] | |
.jpg) | 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] | |
Fossil record
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).
