Helicoplacoidea
Sign in to saveHelicoplacoidea is an extinct class within the Echinodermata. All known taxa were discovered in sediments dating back to the Cambrian.
In the Vinony graph
Vinony's link graph records 6 inbound references to Helicoplacoidea, and connects out to Animalia, Wikidata and class.
Vinony files it under Cambrian echinoderms, Helicoplacoidea and Prehistoric animal classes.
Vinony links it to 8 Wikipedia language editions.
Wikidata facts
- Parent taxon
- Echinodermata
Show 3 more facts
- taxon name
- Helicoplacoidea
- taxon rank
- class
- Commons category
- Helicoplacoidea
Sources (1)
via Wikidata · CC0
~2 min read
Encyclopedic overview
3 sectionsContents
- Description
- Fossils and taxonomy
- References
Helicoplacoidea is an extinct class within the Echinodermata. All known taxa were discovered in sediments dating back to the Cambrian.
==Description== Helicoplacoid skeletons consist of small platelets arranged like those of asteroids, lacking fused skeletons as in echinoids. Little is known about their ecology, besides that they were most likely sessile suspension feeders. Members of the group were able to expand and contract their bodies, and some have speculated that they may have largely fed at night. Others say that they were adapted to the more stratified sediment of the Cambrian and that changes in the composition of this sediment resulted in their extinction. Most likely the extending and contracting played a role in gas exchange and nutrition intake as it generated a water current. They seem to be one of the oldest groups of echinoderms, and also one of the first to go extinct, as they first appeared some 530 million years ago and would go extinct around 516 million years ago.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Helicoplacoidea” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.