Cantabrigiaster
Cantabrigiaster is an extinct genus of asterozoan echinoderms from the order Somasteroidea known from the Fezouata Formation of Morocco.[1] The type species C. fezouataensis was initially described in a 2017 preprint in bioRxiv,[2] but the paper was not published until 2021 in Biology Letters after being peer-reviewed.[3] It is the oldest starfish-like fossil and would have been one of the first relatively modern animals.[4] Like other somasteroids, Cantabrigiaster is thought to be closely related to the ancestors of all modern Asterozoa (starfish and brittlestars).[3]
| Cantabrigiaster Temporal range: Early Ordovician, ~ | |
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| Genus: | †Cantabrigiaster Hunter & Ortega-Hernández, 2021 |
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| †Cantabrigiaster fezouataensis Hunter & Ortega-Hernández, 2021 | |
References
- "New starfish-like fossil reveals evolution in action". phys.org. Retrieved 20 January 2021.
- Hunter, Aaron; Ortega-Hernández, Javier (9 November 2017). "A primitive starfish ancestor from the Early Ordovician of Morocco reveals the origin of crown group Echinodermata". bioRxiv. Retrieved 20 January 2021.
- Hunter, Aaron (20 January 2021). "A new somasteroid from the Fezouata Lagerstätte in Morocco and the Early Ordovician origin of Asterozoa". Biology Letters. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2020.0809.
- "New starfish-like fossil reveals evolution in action". phys.org. Retrieved 2021-03-07.
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