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Goniasteridae

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Family of starfishes

Goniasteridae
Temporal range: 182–Recent Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Pentagonaster duebeni
Scientific classification Edit this 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.

Description

Fromia indica
Nectria ocellata
Neoferdina insolita

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.

Main identification keys for this group include the presence of paxillae, granules, teeth, spines, or the shape and dimensions of marginal plate.

Location and habitat

They occur predominantly on deep-water continental shelf habitats (but a part of them inhabit shallow waters) in all the world's oceans, being the most diverse in the Indo-Pacific region.

List of genera

About 260 extant species within 70 genera are currently known, which make this family the most diverse of all the sea stars, 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

According to World Register of Marine Species, this family includes the following genera:

Extinct genera

Fossil of Marocaster coronatus.
Ray fragment of fossil goniasterid; Zichor Formation (Coniacian, Upper Cretaceous), southern Israel.

Lists of genera containing extinct species according to fossilworks.

References

  1. "Family Goniasteridae". Marine Species Identification Portal.
  2. "Family Goniasteridae". nzetc.victoria.ac.nz.
  3. Mah, Christopher L. (2015-03-05). "New species, corallivory, in situ video observations, and overview of the Goniasteridae (Valvatida, Asteroidea) in the Hawaiian region". Zootaxa. 3926 (2): 211–228. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3926.2.3. ISSN 1175-5334. PMID 25781779.
  4. Clark, A. M. An index of names of recent Asteroidea Part 2: Valvatida. Echinoderm Studies 4 (1993)
  5. Christopher Mah (23 April 2013). "How many starfish species are there ? Where do they Live ? How long have they been around ? Five Points about Sea Star Diversity". The Echinoblog.
  6. Christopher Mah, "Overview of the Ferdina-like Goniasteridae (Echinodermata: Asteroidea) including a new subfamily, three new genera and fourteen new species", Zootaxa, vol. 4271, 2017.
  7. Christopher Mah (2014), Goniasteridae Forbes, 1841, In: Mah, C.L. (2014) World Asteroidea database, accessed through World Register of Marine Species
  8. "Fossilworks: Goniasteridae". fossilworks.org. Retrieved 2019-04-06.

Media related to Goniasteridae at Wikimedia Commons

Taxon identifiers
Goniasteridae
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