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 Haptophyta. About 100 species can be recognized.[
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Biostratigraphic significance
The International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) has assigned the extinction of
Discoaster brouweri as the defining biological marker for the start of the
Calabrian Stage of the
Pleistocene, 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, 2.588 million years ago, the earliest stage of the
Pleistocene. ICS further assigned the extinction of
Discoaster kugleri as biological marker for the start of the
Tortonian of the
Miocene, 11.62 million years ago.
Species
Some species in this genus include:
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