Specimen image via iDigBio · BY
Discoaster
Sign in to saveDiscoaster is a genus of extinct star-shaped marine algae, with calcareous exoskeletons of between 5-40 μm across that are abundant as nanofossils in tropical deep-ocean deposits of Neogene age. Discoaster belongs to the haptophytes. About 100 species can be recognized.
Species
GENUS
- KingdomChromista
- PhylumHaptophyta
- ClassPrymnesiophyceae
- OrderDiscoasterales
- FamilyDiscoasteraceae
via GBIF
Museum specimens
- Specimen records
- 62
- With media
- 9
- Family
- Discoasteraceae
- Collections
- UCMP, USNM
- Recorded in
- United States, Trinidad
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- taxon
- Image
- Discoaster surculus 01.jpg
Show 6 more facts
- Commons category
- Discoaster
- temporal range start
- Paleocene
- taxon rank
- genus
- taxon name
- Discoaster
- temporal range end
- Pleistocene
Sources (1)
via Wikidata · CC0
~2 min read
Encyclopedic overview
3 sectionsContents
- Biostratigraphic significance
- Species
- References
Discoaster is a genus of extinct star-shaped marine algae, with calcareous exoskeletons of between 5-40 μm across that are abundant as nanofossils in tropical deep-ocean deposits of Neogene age. Discoaster belongs to the haptophytes. About 100 species can be recognized.
== Biostratigraphic significance == The International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) has assigned the extinction of Discoaster brouweri as the defining biological marker for the start of the Calabrian Stage of the Pleistocene, 1.806 million years ago. ICS has assigned the extinction of Discoaster pentaradiatus and Discoaster surculus as the defining biological marker for the start of the Gelasian Stage, 2.588 million years ago, the earliest stage of the Pleistocene. ICS further assigned the extinction of Discoaster kugleri as biological marker for the start of the Tortonian Stage of the Miocene, 11.62 million years ago.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Discoaster” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.