Heliaster

{{Automatic taxobox

| fossil_range = {{fossilrange|3|0}} Pliocene to present

| image = Heliasteridae - Heliaster microbrachius.JPG

| image_caption = Heliaster microbrachius

| taxon = Heliaster

| authority = Gray, 1840

| synonyms =

}}

Heliaster is a genus of Asteroidea (sea stars) in the family Heliasteridae.[http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=255070 WoRMS]

Species

Image	Scientific name	Distribution
class="wikitable"
	Heliaster canopus Perrier, 1875	South Pacific Ocean{{cite journal \| last1=Raimondi \| first1=Peter T. \| last2=Sagarin \| first2=Raphael D. \| last3=Ambrose \| first3=Richard F. \| last4=Bell \| first4=Christy \| last5=George \| first5=Maya \| last6=Lee \| first6=Steven F. \| last7=Lohse \| first7=David \| last8=Miner \| first8=C. Melissa \| last9=Murray \| first9=Steven N. \| title=Consistent Frequency of Color Morphs in the Sea Star Pisaster ochraceus (Echinodermata:Asteriidae) across Open-Coast Habitats in the Northeastern Pacific¹ \| journal=Pacific Science \| volume=61 \| issue=2 \| year=2007 \| issn=0030-8870 \| doi=10.2984/1534-6188(2007)61[201:cfocmi]2.0.co;2 \| pages=201–210}}
120px	Heliaster cumingi (Gray, 1840)	Gulf of California {{cite book \| last1=Sonnenholzner \| first1=Jorge \| last2=Brandt \| first2=Margarita \| last3=Francisco \| first3=Vanessa \| last4=Hearn \| first4=Alex \| last5=Luzuriaga \| first5=María \| last6=Guarderas \| first6=Paulina \| last7=Navarro \| first7=Juan Carlos \| title=Echinoderm Research and Diversity in Latin America \| chapter=Echinoderms of Ecuador \| publisher=Springer Berlin Heidelberg \| publication-place=Berlin, Heidelberg \| date=2012-08-04 \| isbn=978-3-642-20050-2 \| doi=10.1007/978-3-642-20051-9_6 \| pages=183–233}}
120px	Heliaster helianthus (Lamarck, 1816)	southeastern Pacific Ocean{{cite journal \| author=Porter, Carlos E. \| year=1915 \| title=Los Heliasteridae de Chile: Heliaster helianthus \| url=http://rchn.biologiachile.cl/pdfs/1915/1-2/Porter_1915.1-2a.pdf \| journal=Revista Chilena de Historia Natural \| volume=19 \| issue=1–2 \| pages=17–21 \| language=Spanish }}
120px	Heliaster kubiniji Xantus, 1860	eastern Pacific Ocean{{cite web \| title=Heliaster kubiniji common sun star,gulf sun star \| website=Mainpage Reeflex \| date=2016-01-09 \| url=https://www.reeflex.net/tiere/9134_Heliaster_kubiniji.htm \| access-date=2024-02-06}}
120px	Heliaster microbrachius Xantus, 1860	east Pacific[https://archive.org/stream/cbarchive_100804_thestarfishesofthegenusheliast1863/thestarfishesofthegenusheliast1863_djvu.txt Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College]
	Heliaster polybrachius H.L. Clark, 1907	Gulf of California{{Cite journal \|last=Fisher \|first=W. K. \|date=1931 \|title=REPORT ON THE SOUTH AMERICAN SEA STARS COLLECTED BY WALDO L. SCHMITT \|url=https://repository.si.edu/bitstream/handle/10088/15989/USNMP-78_2859_1931.pdf \|journal=Proceedings of the U.S. National Museum \|volume=78}}
	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

External links

{{Commons category-inline|Heliaster|Heliaster}}
{{Wikispecies-inline|Heliaster|Heliaster}}

Category:Asteroidea genera

Category:Taxa named by John Edward Gray