Forbes 1839: 120; Gray 1840: 183; Danielssen & Koren 1882: 50; Sladen 1889: 452; Perrier 1894: 151; Acloque 1900: 256; Fisher 1911: 306; Hayashi 1939: 297; 1940: 174; Djakonov 1950: 65; Bernasconi 1964: 258, 1970: 249; Clark & Downey 1992: 301.
Diagnosis. Arms 7 to 17. Abactinal skeleton composed of close set cruciform or rounded plates (paxillae also referred to as pseudopaxillae) with non-penicillate spinelets. Papular pores single. Marginal plates paxillate, disproportionately sized with prominent inferomarginals, evenly spaced. Actinal plates spinose with multifid tips. Subambulacral spines forming distinct transverse fans. Furrow spines palmate, unwebbed.
Comments. Solaster includes 23 known species from all the world’s oceans, primarily from temperate to cold-water settings, ranging in depth from intertidal to 3120 m (Clark & Downey 1992, A.M. Clark 1996). The best-known Solaster species from shallow-water habitats in the North Pacific and North Atlantic are predators of megafaunal invertebrates, particularly echinoderms such as sea cucumbers and other sea stars (Jangoux 1982; Van Veldhuizen & Oakes 1981; Mauzey 1968).
Diversity in Solaster has been described primarily from the Pacific coast of North America and Asia (Fisher 1911; Hayashi 1939, 1940) as well as the North Atlantic (Clark & Downey 1992) and the sub-Antarctic (Clark 1962). Relatively few species of solasterids are known from deep-sea habitats in the central and tropical Pacific regions (e.g., Solaster tropicus Fisher 1919) with none recorded from the Hawaiian deep-sea region.