Heliaster Explained

Heliaster is a genus of Asteroidea (sea stars) in the family Heliasteridae.^[1]

Species

Image	Scientific name	Distribution
	Heliaster canopus Perrier, 1875	South Pacific Ocean^[2]
	Heliaster cumingi (Gray, 1840)	Gulf of California ^[3]
	Heliaster helianthus (Lamarck, 1816)	southeastern Pacific Ocean^[4]
	Heliaster kubiniji Xantus, 1860	eastern Pacific Ocean^[5]
	Heliaster microbrachius Xantus, 1860	east Pacific^[6]
	Heliaster polybrachius H.L. Clark, 1907	Gulf of California^[7]
	Heliaster solaris A.H. Clark, 1920	Española Island in the Galápagos Islands.

Fossil record

Whole specimens of Heliaster microbrachius have been found preserved in calcite-cemented quartz in Southwest Florida that dates to the Pliocene, 3.5 to 2.5 million years ago (Castilla et al. 2013). Today H. microbrachius is found only in the Pacific Ocean: on the coast of Panama, and Acapulco in Mexico. This suggests that greater connection between the two oceans gave the species a more extensive range in the past (Castilla et al. 2013).

References

• Castilla, Juan Carlos, Sergio A. Navarrete, Tatiana Manzur, and Mario Barahona. 2013. Heliaster helianthus. Chapter 15, pp. 153–160 in John M. Lawrence, ed. 2013. Starfish. Biology and Ecology of the Asteroidea. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.
• Gray J.E. (1840). A synopsis of the genera and species of the class Hypostoma (Asterias Linnaeus). Annals of the Magazine of Natural History 6: 175-184; 275-290

Notes and References

1. http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=255070 WoRMS
2. Raimondi . Peter T. . Sagarin . Raphael D. . Ambrose . Richard F. . Bell . Christy . George . Maya . Lee . Steven F. . Lohse . David . Miner . C. Melissa . Murray . Steven N. . Consistent Frequency of Color Morphs in the Sea Star Pisaster ochraceus (Echinodermata:Asteriidae) across Open-Coast Habitats in the Northeastern Pacific¹ . Pacific Science . 61 . 2 . 2007 . 0030-8870 . 10.2984/1534-6188(2007)61[201:cfocmi]2.0.co;2 . 201–210.
3. Book: Sonnenholzner . Jorge . Brandt . Margarita . Francisco . Vanessa . Hearn . Alex . Luzuriaga . María . Guarderas . Paulina . Navarro . Juan Carlos . Echinoderm Research and Diversity in Latin America . Echinoderms of Ecuador . Springer Berlin Heidelberg . Berlin, Heidelberg . 2012-08-04 . 978-3-642-20050-2 . 10.1007/978-3-642-20051-9_6 . 183–233.
4. Porter, Carlos E. . 1915 . Los Heliasteridae de Chile: Heliaster helianthus . Revista Chilena de Historia Natural . 19 . 1–2 . 17–21 . Spanish .
5. Web site: Heliaster kubiniji common sun star,gulf sun star . Mainpage Reeflex . 2016-01-09 . 2024-02-06.
6. https://archive.org/stream/cbarchive_100804_thestarfishesofthegenusheliast1863/thestarfishesofthegenusheliast1863_djvu.txt Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College
7. Fisher . W. K. . 1931 . REPORT ON THE SOUTH AMERICAN SEA STARS COLLECTED BY WALDO L. SCHMITT . Proceedings of the U.S. National Museum . 78.