Goniasteridae Temporal range:
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Pentagonaster duebeni | |
Scientific classification
![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Echinodermata |
Class: | Asteroidea |
Order: | Valvatida |
Family: |
Goniasteridae Forbes, 1841 |
Genera | |
See text |
Goniasteridae (the biscuit stars) constitute the largest family of sea stars, included in the order Valvatida. They are mostly deep-dwelling species, but the family also include several colorful shallow tropical species.
Goniasteridae are usually middle-sized sea stars with a characteristic double range of marginal plates bordering the disk and arms. Most of them have five arms, often short and triangular, around a broad central disc; many species are pentagonal or subpentagonal, covered densely with granular, seed-like protuberances, hence the name of the family "seed-star" (gonium+aster). The aboral face is often covered with tiny spines looking like paxillae. Pedicellariae are often valvate, and the gonads are located at the interradius. [1]
Main identification keys for this group include the presence of paxillae, granules, teeth, spines, or the shape and dimensions of marginal plate. [2]
They occur predominantly on deep-water continental shelf habitats (but a part of them inhabit shallow waters) [3] in all the world's oceans, being the most diverse in the Indo-Pacific region. [4]
About 260 extant species within 70 genera are currently known, which make this family the most diverse of all the sea stars, [5] even if half of the genera are monospecific. Species belonging to the Ferdininae subfamily have been imported from Ophidiasteridae thanks to a large revision of these two families in 2017 [6]
According to World Register of Marine Species, this family includes the following genera: [7]
Lists of genera containing extinct species according to fossilworks. [8]
Media related to
Goniasteridae at Wikimedia Commons
Goniasteridae Temporal range:
| |
---|---|
| |
Pentagonaster duebeni | |
Scientific classification
![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Echinodermata |
Class: | Asteroidea |
Order: | Valvatida |
Family: |
Goniasteridae Forbes, 1841 |
Genera | |
See text |
Goniasteridae (the biscuit stars) constitute the largest family of sea stars, included in the order Valvatida. They are mostly deep-dwelling species, but the family also include several colorful shallow tropical species.
Goniasteridae are usually middle-sized sea stars with a characteristic double range of marginal plates bordering the disk and arms. Most of them have five arms, often short and triangular, around a broad central disc; many species are pentagonal or subpentagonal, covered densely with granular, seed-like protuberances, hence the name of the family "seed-star" (gonium+aster). The aboral face is often covered with tiny spines looking like paxillae. Pedicellariae are often valvate, and the gonads are located at the interradius. [1]
Main identification keys for this group include the presence of paxillae, granules, teeth, spines, or the shape and dimensions of marginal plate. [2]
They occur predominantly on deep-water continental shelf habitats (but a part of them inhabit shallow waters) [3] in all the world's oceans, being the most diverse in the Indo-Pacific region. [4]
About 260 extant species within 70 genera are currently known, which make this family the most diverse of all the sea stars, [5] even if half of the genera are monospecific. Species belonging to the Ferdininae subfamily have been imported from Ophidiasteridae thanks to a large revision of these two families in 2017 [6]
According to World Register of Marine Species, this family includes the following genera: [7]
Lists of genera containing extinct species according to fossilworks. [8]
Media related to
Goniasteridae at Wikimedia Commons