Asteriidae

Asteriidae
Temporal range: Late Cretaceous–Recent
Leptasterias hexactis
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Echinodermata
Class: Asteroidea
Order: Forcipulatida
Family: Asteriidae
Gray, 1840 [1]
Type species
Asterias rubens
Linnaeus, 1758
Diversity
39 genera, see text

The Asteriidae are a diverse family of Asteroidea (sea stars) in the order Forcipulatida. It is one of three families in the order Forcipulatida.

The oldest unambiguous fossils of the family date to the Late Cretaceous.[2]

  1. ^ Mah, Christopher (2023). "Asteriidae". WoRMS. World Register of Marine Species. Retrieved 2023-11-30.
  2. ^ Fau, Marine; Wright, David F.; Ewin, Timothy A. M.; Gale, Andrew S.; Villier, Loïc (2024-10-31). "Phylogenetic and taxonomic revisions of Jurassic sea stars support a delayed evolutionary origin of the Asteriidae". PeerJ. 12: e18169. doi:10.7717/peerj.18169. ISSN 2167-8359.