''Discoaster'' is a genus of extinct star-shaped marine algae, with calcareous exoskeletons of between 5-40 μm across that are abundant as nanofossils in tropical deep-ocean deposits of Neogene age. ''Discoaster'' belongs to the

haptophytes The haptophytes, classified either as the Haptophyta, Haptophytina or Prymnesiophyta (named for '' Prymnesium''), are a clade of algae. The names Haptophyceae or Prymnesiophyceae are sometimes used instead. This ending implies classification at ...

. About 100 species can be recognized.

Biostratigraphic significance

The

International Commission on Stratigraphy The International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS), sometimes referred to unofficially as the "International Stratigraphic Commission", is a daughter or major subcommittee grade scientific daughter organization that concerns itself with stratigra ...

(ICS) has assigned the extinction of ''Discoaster brouweri'' as the defining biological marker for the start of the Calabrian Stage of the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

, 1.806 million years ago. ICS has assigned the extinction of ''Discoaster pentaradiatus'' and ''Discoaster surculus'' as the defining biological marker for the start of the Gelasian Stage, 2.588 million years ago, the earliest stage of the

. ICS further assigned the extinction of ''Discoaster kugleri'' as biological marker for the start of the Tortonian Stage of the

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...

, 11.62 million years ago.

Species

Some species in this genus include: :

References

Haptophyte genera Prehistoric eukaryote genera Index fossils Paleocene first appearances Pleistocene genus extinctions {{Haptophyte-stub