Villebrunaster

Villebrunaster is an extinct genus of starfish-like animal belonging to Asterozoa that lived around 480 million years ago during Early Ordovician Period in modern-day southern France and Morocco.

"[4] Another British palaeontologist, Juliette Dean Shackleton, identified new specimens as Ampullaster ubaghsi in 2005,[5] which were later reclassified as V.

[3][7] The specimens, originally collected from Fezouata Shale Formation in Morocco, were reanalysed by American palaeontologists Daniel B. Blake and Frederick H.C.Hotchkiss who moved to taxonomic position the genus Villebrunaster in 2022.

[5] The presence of multiple virgal ossicles in each series running perpendicular to the ambulacra is a feature of the Somasteroidea.

However, Villebrunaster lacks axially oriented ossicles along the lateral margins of the arms, which are found in other somasteroids.