A class-level profile anchored to Eriaster ibexensis from the very top Tremadocian of Utah; problematic Lower Cambrian Asteriacites traces are not substituted for an asteroid body-fossil record.
Represented range478–Present Ma
Content packageechinoderms
PBDBtxn:31341
Evidence boundary
Automated checks cover structure, identifiers, translations and links only; maintainer and external expert review are not complete.
Claim ledger
fossil-range · medium
Eriaster ibexensis from the very top Tremadocian of Utah is the oldest supported asteroid body-fossil record used here; Lower Cambrian Asteriacites trace fossils do not set the Asteroidea body-fossil range because their producer and mode of formation are problematic.
claim:taxon:asteroidea:top-tremadocian-body-fossiltaxonomy · medium
Eriaster ibexensis is treated as an asteroid body fossil in the cited systematic study; problematic Lower Cambrian Asteriacites traces are not used as an Asteroidea body-fossil assignment.
claim:taxon:asteroidea:taxonomybiogeography · medium
Eriaster ibexensis is a source-bounded very-top-Tremadocian record from Utah, United States; it does not establish a global asteroid distribution or origin centre.
claim:taxon:asteroidea:biogeographyecology · high
The Eriaster body-fossil study does not establish class-wide diet, habitat preference, locomotor performance, body-size distribution or guild for Asteroidea; only source-bounded marine depositional context is retained.
claim:taxon:asteroidea:ecologymorphology · medium
The cited study documents Eriaster ibexensis body-fossil anatomy; the profile keeps this specimen-level morphology separate from problematic trace fossils and from a class-wide trait inventory.
claim:taxon:asteroidea:morphology
Known limits
A missing branch or fossil occurrence does not imply biological absence. Internal nodes are not calibrated divergence estimates.