Heliaster is a genus of Asteroidea (sea stars) in the family Heliasteridae. WoRMS
Species Image Scientific name Distribution Heliaster canopus Perrier, 1875South Pacific Ocean Heliaster cumingi (Gray, 1840)Gulf of California Heliaster helianthus (Lamarck, 1816)southeastern Pacific Ocean Heliaster kubiniji Xantus, 1860 eastern Pacific Ocean Heliaster microbrachius Xantus, 1860east PacificBulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College Heliaster polybrachius H.L. Clark, 1907Gulf of California Heliaster solaris A.H. Clark, 1920Española 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
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