Description

Dendraster venturaensis
Echinoid
Lower Pliocene
Las Posas Formation
South Mountain, Ventura county, California, USA

Excellent 96mm big echinoid.

Dendraster is a genus of sand dollar (an echinoderm group) that appeared late in the Miocene and still lives today.  Dendraster venturaensis is an extinct species and is larger than D. gibbsi (also extinct) and tends to be larger than the modern species, D. excentricus.