Argyrotheca

Argyrotheca is a genus of very small to minute lampshells. All species share a large pedicel opening, one ridge on the inside of the pedunculate valve, pits in a diamond pattern on the inside of both valves, and without radial ridges that end in tubercles. It occurs in depths between 6 and 1300 m. It is known since the latest Cretaceous.

Argyrotheca

Dwergenpaartje · 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
Sits inside
MegathyrididaePBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB, for Megathyrididae
Life habit
low-level epifaunalPBDB, for Megathyrididae
Motility
stationary, attachedPBDB, for Megathyrididae
Vision
blindPBDB, for Rhynchonellata
Environment
marinePBDB, for Lophophorata

Time the record covers

At least 142 million years on record.

The record covers at least 143.1 Mya to 774 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 149.2 Mya to 129 ka.

Late Jurassic — about 1 of 360 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 0 of 360 occurrencesLate Cretaceous — about 92 of 360 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 74 of 360 occurrencesEocene — about 60 of 360 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 27 of 360 occurrencesMiocene — about 80 of 360 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 16 of 360 occurrencesPleistocene — about 10 of 360 occurrences152–147 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences147–142 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences101–96 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences96–91 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences91–86 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences86–81 Mya — about 3 occurrences81–76 Mya — about 4 occurrences76–71 Mya — about 19 occurrences71–66 Mya — about 66 occurrences66–61 Mya — about 66 occurrences61–56 Mya — about 8 occurrences56–51 Mya — about 15 occurrences51–46 Mya — about 10 occurrences46–41 Mya — about 8 occurrences41–36 Mya — about 21 occurrences36–30 Mya — about 15 occurrences30–25 Mya — about 13 occurrences25–20 Mya — about 8 occurrences20–15 Mya — about 8 occurrences15–10 Mya — about 58 occurrences10–5.1 Mya — about 14 occurrences5.1–0 Mya — about 24 occurrences143.1 Mya774 ka152 Mya0 Mya

360 occurrences of Argyrotheca on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. 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

360 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

45 formations

Ciply-Malogne Phosphatic Chalk — 50.42°N, 3.94°EPinczow — 50.53°N, 20.53°EPinczow — 50.45°N, 20.80°EPinczow — 50.47°N, 20.67°EPinczow — 50.53°N, 21.08°EPinczow — 50.63°N, 20.71°EGurabo — 19.51°N, 71.18°WGurabo — 19.37°N, 70.76°WMao — 19.54°N, 71.19°WMao — 19.57°N, 71.28°WManchioneal — 17.99°N, 76.25°WManchioneal — 18.18°N, 76.44°WWaititi — 35.44°S, 173.30°EWaititi — 35.55°S, 173.44°EWaititi — 35.55°S, 173.49°EWaititi — 35.56°S, 173.49°ECastle Hayne — 34.64°N, 77.65°WCastle Hayne — 34.37°N, 77.86°WSzoc Limestone — 47.16°N, 17.54°ESzoc Limestone — 47.10°N, 17.55°ESzoc Limestone — 47.72°N, 18.60°ESelsey Sand — 50.73°N, 0.81°WVincentown — 39.97°N, 74.68°WSantee Limestone — 33.33°N, 79.69°WSantee Limestone — 33.33°N, 80.15°WTe Whanga Limestone — 43.82°S, 176.50°WTalara — 4.52°S, 81.30°WMarnes de Saint-Etienne-d’Orthe — 43.57°N, 1.10°WPuebla — 42.35°N, 0.46°EPuebla — 42.36°N, 0.41°EObourg — 50.41°N, 3.92°EPadrag Marl — 47.31°N, 18.19°EPadrag Marl — 47.72°N, 18.66°EYumuri — 23.05°N, 81.57°WDnieper Beds — 48.45°N, 35.15°ELower Red — 31.51°N, 52.73°ECalcaire de Vigny — 49.07°N, 1.92°EMiddle Coral Rock — 13.17°N, 59.45°WAlzey — 49.83°N, 7.72°ECalcareniti del Salento — 40.00°N, 18.42°E

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The named rock units Argyrotheca has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 21 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 232 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Argyrotheca and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Argyrotheca and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

1,638 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 243 sites for Argyrotheca, and this reads 240 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

70 references

Each of the 360 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. 58 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 Argyrotheca

Credit
Dwergenpaartje
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Argyrotheca 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 itMegathyrididae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Dall 1900