Abra

Abra is a genus of saltwater clams, marine bivalve mollusks in the family Semelidae. Members of this genus are mostly under 1.5 centimeters long, and have thin shells which are usually white. These bivalves normally live under the surface of sandy and muddy sediments, in the neritic zone.

Abra

Jan Johan ter Poorten · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
abraPBDB
Sits inside
SemelidaePBDB
Diet
deposit feeder, suspension feederPBDB
Life habit
infaunalPBDB
Motility
facultatively mobilePBDB
Vision
blindPBDB, for Bivalvia

Time the record covers

At least 48 million years on record.

The record covers at least 48.07 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 0 Mya.

Paleocene — about 0 of 347 occurrencesEocene — about 74 of 347 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 37 of 347 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 74 of 347 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 62 of 347 occurrencesPleistocene — about 82 of 347 occurrences57–55 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences55–53 Mya — about 2 occurrences53–51 Mya — about 2 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 2 occurrences50–48 Mya — about 3 occurrences48–46 Mya — about 7 occurrences46–44 Mya — about 7 occurrences44–42 Mya — about 7 occurrences42–40 Mya — about 14 occurrences40–38 Mya — about 21 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 6 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 2 occurrences34–32 Mya — about 9 occurrences32–30 Mya — about 11 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 11 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 7 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences25–23 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences23–21 Mya — about 2 occurrences21–19 Mya — about 5 occurrences19–17 Mya — about 6 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 9 occurrences15–13 Mya — about 16 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 21 occurrences11–9.5 Mya — about 6 occurrences9.5–7.6 Mya — about 6 occurrences7.6–5.7 Mya — about 4 occurrences5.7–3.8 Mya — about 18 occurrences3.8–1.9 Mya — about 62 occurrences1.9–0 Mya — about 82 occurrences48.07 Mya11.7 ka57 Mya0 Mya

347 occurrences of Abra on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

347 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

80 formations

Cook Mountain — 31.29°N, 86.56°WCook Mountain — 31.31°N, 86.48°WCook Mountain — 31.25°N, 95.73°WCook Mountain — 31.75°N, 92.97°WCook Mountain — 32.04°N, 88.73°WCook Mountain — 31.09°N, 95.95°WCook Mountain — 31.20°N, 95.73°WCook Mountain — 30.63°N, 96.55°WCook Mountain — 30.63°N, 96.54°WMoodys Branch — 32.85°N, 90.41°WMoodys Branch — 32.95°N, 90.17°WMoodys Branch — 32.23°N, 92.15°WMoodys Branch — 32.01°N, 92.00°WMoodys Branch — 32.33°N, 90.15°WMoodys Branch — 31.88°N, 88.69°WMoodys Branch — 31.97°N, 88.53°WFalun de Jeurs — 48.48°N, 2.23°EMorne l'Enfer — 10.23°N, 61.63°WBowden — 17.88°N, 76.28°WNorwich Crag — 52.58°N, 1.38°EFalun de Morigny — 48.45°N, 2.20°EJames City — 35.28°N, 76.65°WJames City — 35.04°N, 76.99°WEscudo de Veraguas — 9.09°N, 81.55°WEscudo de Veraguas — 9.10°N, 81.57°WLillo — 51.25°N, 4.28°ELondon Clay — 51.40°N, 0.83°ELondon Clay — 50.89°N, 1.28°WLondon Clay — 51.73°N, 0.48°ELondon Clay — 51.08°N, 1.17°WLondon Clay — 51.51°N, 0.24°EWaccamaw — 34.56°N, 78.49°WWaccamaw — 34.29°N, 78.51°WWaccamaw — 34.33°N, 78.20°WWaccamaw — 34.17°N, 78.60°WRed Crag — 51.85°N, 1.28°ERed Crag — 52.02°N, 1.43°ERed Crag — 52.75°N, 1.53°ELisbon — 31.53°N, 87.60°WLisbon — 31.50°N, 87.80°WVistula — 54.28°N, 19.48°EVistula — 53.94°N, 19.33°EHorry Clay — 34.97°N, 76.97°WHorry Clay — 33.69°N, 78.89°WBerada — 51.10°N, 5.80°EGatun — 9.30°N, 79.92°WGatun — 9.36°N, 79.84°WWeches — 30.68°N, 96.58°WWeches — 31.21°N, 96.02°WWeches — 31.00°N, 96.83°WWeches — 31.59°N, 94.84°WRed Bluff — 30.98°N, 88.73°WRed Bluff — 31.81°N, 88.69°WRed Bluff — 31.66°N, 88.66°WStone City — 30.53°N, 96.69°WStone City — 30.63°N, 96.54°WChowan RIver — 35.28°N, 76.65°WChowan RIver — 36.05°N, 76.73°WGosport Sand — 31.50°N, 87.80°WGosport Sand — 31.54°N, 87.52°WGosport Sand — 31.55°N, 87.91°WWerder — 52.98°N, 9.06°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Abra has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 56 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 79 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Abra and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Abra and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

2,705 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 236 sites for Abra, and this reads all of them. Of that, one read hit the database's own return limit, so every count below is a floor rather than a total. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

90 references

Each of the 347 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 78 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Abra

Credit
Jan Johan ter Poorten
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Abra was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itSemelidae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Lamarck 1818