''Heliaster solaris'' commonly known as 24-rayed sunstar is a possibly extinct sea star which was known from the waters near

Española Island Española Island (Spanish: ''Isla Española'') is part of the Galápagos Islands. The English named it ''Hood Island'' after Viscount Samuel Hood. It is located in the extreme southeast of the archipelago and is considered, along with Sant ...

in the

Galápagos Islands The Galápagos Islands (Spanish: , , ) are an archipelago of volcanic islands. They are distributed on each side of the equator in the Pacific Ocean, surrounding the centre of the Western Hemisphere, and are part of the Republic of Ecuador ...

Description

''Heliaster solaris'' had 22 to 24 cylindrical and elongated more or less distinctly banded rays which were tapering at the ends. They were one third longer than the diameter of the body. The dorsal rows of the spines were longer and more compressed. The spines,

pedicellaria A pedicellaria (plural: pedicellariae) is a small wrench- or claw-shaped appendage with movable jaws, called valves, commonly found on echinoderms (phylum Echinodermata), particularly in sea stars (class Asteroidea) and sea urchins (class Echinoi ...

e, and the madreporic plate were light yellowish.

Taxonomy

This species was first mentioned by

John Edward Gray John Edward Gray, FRS (12 February 1800 – 7 March 1875) was a British zoologist. He was the elder brother of zoologist George Robert Gray and son of the pharmacologist and botanist Samuel Frederick Gray (1766–1828). The same is used for ...

in 1840 in the Annals and Magazine of Natural History as ''Asterias multiradiata'' and later as ''Heliaster multiradiatus''. Due to the fact that

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

used the name ''Asterias multiradiata'' (current accepted name: '' Capillaster multiradiata'') already in 1758 Gray's name became an invalid

homonym In linguistics, homonyms are words which are homographs (words that share the same spelling, regardless of pronunciation), or homophones (equivocal words, that share the same pronunciation, regardless of spelling), or both. Using this definition, ...

. In 1920

Austin Hobart Clark Austin Hobart Clark (December 17, 1880 – October 28, 1954) was an American zoologist. He was born in Wellesley, Massachusetts and died in Washington, D.C. His research covered a wide range of topics including oceanography, marine biology, ...

published the replacement name ''Heliaster solaris''.

Extinction

''Heliaster solaris'' disappeared during the

El Niño Southern Oscillation EL, El or el may refer to: Religion * El (deity), a Semitic word for "God" People * EL (rapper) (born 1983), stage name of Elorm Adablah, a Ghanaian rapper and sound engineer * El DeBarge, music artist * El Franco Lee (1949–2016), American po ...

event which affected the Galapagos Islands in the early 1980s.

References

*John Edward Gray: ''Mr. J. E. Gray's Synopsis of the Genera and Species of Starfish'' In: Annals and Magazine of Natural History Volume 6, 1840. p. 180 *Austin Hobart Clark: A New Name for Heliaster multiradiatus (Gray). In: Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, 1920. p. 183 *Graham J. Edgar et al.: El Niño, grazers and fisheries interact to greatly elevate extinction risk for Galapagos marine species In: Global Change Biology 23 October 2009

External links

Photograph and news article
{{Taxonbar, from=Q150457 Heliasteridae Extinct invertebrates since 1500 Animals described in 1920 Galápagos Islands coastal fauna Taxa named by Austin Hobart Clark