- Animals
- ›Echinoderms
- ›Sea Stars and Brittle Stars
- ›Sea Stars
- ›Forcipulatacean Sea Stars
- ›Forcipulatidan Sea Stars
- ›Asteriid Sea Stars
Rathbunaster
Rathbunaster is a monospecific genus of sea stars in the family Asteriidae. The genus name was given by Walter Kenrick Fisher to honor the American biologist and administrator Richard Rathbun of the Smithsonian Institution. Rathbunaster had previously been classified in the Labidiasteridae, a family now found to be artificial. Molecular data has placed it soundly in the Asteriidae.
The only species in the genus, Rathbunaster californicus, common name California sun star, has a maximum size of about 45 centimeters in diameter and an average weight of 35 g. It lives on muddy benthic substrates between 60 and 1,000 m below the surface. it is covered in spikes with pincers that are used to capture prey for consumption.
1 branches of this genus, most-observed first
See this branch on the Wheel of Life →
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
—
geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Rathbunaster in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 195897.