Artificial cast of Germanasterias amplipapularia, holotype Nr. 18869a–b in abactinal view (A), and actinal view (B). (C) Details of the disc and arm in abactinal view. (D) Detail of the arms and oral frame in actinal view. DOI: 10.7717/peerj.18169/fig-7
CR2P members contributed to this study, published in Peer J
In light of recent advancements in forcipulatacean systematics, we comprehensively reassess six well-preserved Jurassic forcipulatacean taxa, and also describe two new Jurassic genera, Forbesasterias gen. nov. and Marbleaster gen. nov.
Contrary to prior assumptions, our results indicate that none of the Jurassic taxa investigated belong to Asteriidae or any other modern families, and instead represent stem-forcipulatids. Furthermore, our phylogenetic results suggest that Asteriidae likely originated during the late Cretaceous.
Reference : Fau M, Wright DF, Ewin TAM, Gale AS, Villier L. 2024. Phylogenetic and taxonomic revisions of Jurassic sea stars support a delayed evolutionary origin of the Asteriidae. PeerJ 12:e18169 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.18169
