Acanthina

Acanthina, common name the unicorn snails, is a genus of small predatory sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Muricidae, the murex snails or rock snails.

Acanthina

Pallas, 1774 · CC0 · 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
unicornPBDB
Sits inside
OcenebrinaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Muricidae
Life habit
epifaunalPBDB, for Muricidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Muricidae
Vision
limitedPBDB, for Gastropoda

Time the record covers

At least 23 million years on record.

The record covers at least 23.04 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 27.3 Mya to 0 Mya.

Oligocene — about 1 of 80 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 26 of 80 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 24 of 80 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 28 of 80 occurrencesPleistocene28–27 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 2 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 2 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 2 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 2 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 2 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 2 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 2 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 2 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 2 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 1 occurrence11–10 Mya — about 1 occurrence10–9.3 Mya — about 1 occurrence9.3–8.4 Mya — about 1 occurrence8.4–7.4 Mya — about 1 occurrence7.4–6.5 Mya — about 2 occurrences6.5–5.6 Mya — about 2 occurrences5.6–4.6 Mya — about 5 occurrences4.6–3.7 Mya — about 6 occurrences3.7–2.8 Mya — about 11 occurrences2.8–1.9 Mya — about 6 occurrences1.9–928 ka Mya — about 7 occurrences928 ka–0 Mya — about 20 occurrences23.04 Mya11.7 ka27.8 Mya0 Mya

80 occurrences of Acanthina 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

80 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

19 formations

Pisco — 15.58°S, 74.72°WPisco — 14.74°S, 75.52°WPisco — 14.76°S, 75.51°WPisco — 14.43°S, 75.85°WPisco — 14.46°S, 75.84°WPisco — 14.98°S, 75.32°WPisco — 15.45°S, 74.87°WPisco — 15.48°S, 75.82°WPisco — 15.48°S, 74.79°WPisco — 14.20°S, 76.12°WPisco — 15.66°S, 75.58°WChilcatay — 15.00°S, 75.00°WChilcatay — 14.20°S, 76.12°WChilcatay — 14.75°S, 75.51°WChilcatay — 14.20°S, 75.67°WFormación Coquimbo — 29.08°S, 71.46°WFormación Coquimbo — 29.05°S, 71.43°WFormación Coquimbo — 30.24°S, 71.44°WFormación Coquimbo — 30.25°S, 71.46°WCoquimbo — 30.33°S, 71.50°WCoquimbo — 28.95°S, 71.35°WCoquimbo — 28.96°S, 71.49°WPampa del Palo Terrace — 17.58°S, 71.17°WNavidad — 33.83°S, 71.83°WNavidad — 33.95°S, 71.87°WHuacllaco — 15.90°S, 74.17°WCamana — 15.94°S, 73.32°WCamana — 16.42°S, 72.83°WPongo — 15.49°S, 74.75°WPongo — 15.53°S, 74.73°WDepósitos Litorales — 28.61°S, 71.22°WDepósitos Litorales — 28.81°S, 71.37°WSalada — 26.00°N, 111.14°WSan Marcos — 26.00°N, 111.14°WSan Juan Terrace — 15.33°S, 75.17°WLa Planchada — 15.87°S, 74.18°WLa Cueva — 34.25°S, 71.80°WMorro Mejillones — 23.12°S, 70.52°WPancho Rico — 36.13°N, 121.02°WMancora Tablazo — 4.58°S, 81.27°WFormación Confluencia — 29.29°S, 71.29°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Acanthina has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 27 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Acanthina and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Acanthina and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

707 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 64 sites for Acanthina, and this reads all of them. 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

32 references

Each of the 80 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. 20 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 Acanthina

Credit
Pallas, 1774
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Acanthina was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access was 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 itOcenebrinae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Fischer de Waldheim 1807)