Aulacomya atra

Aulacomya atra, called also the Magellan mussel or the ribbed mussel, is a southern species of edible saltwater mussel, a marine bivalve mollusk in the family Mytilidae, the true mussels. Note that the common name ribbed mussel is also used of the Northern Hemisphere mussel Geukensia demissa.

Aulacomya atra

Rodrigo Fernández · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
AulacomyaPBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB, for Mytilidae
Life habit
epifaunalPBDB, for Mytilidae
Motility
stationary, attachedPBDB, for Mytilidae
Vision
blindPBDB, for Bivalvia
Environment
lagoonal,coastal,inner shelf,outer shelf,oceanic,brackish,freshwaterPBDB, for Mytilidae

Time the record covers

At least 27 million years on record.

The record covers at least 27.3 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 33.9 Mya to 0 Mya.

Eocene — about 0 of 18 occurrencesOligocene — about 2 of 18 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 3 of 18 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 2 of 18 occurrencesPleistocene — about 6 of 18 occurrences35–33 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences20–18 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.6–3.5 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences3.5–2.3 Mya — about 2 occurrences2.3–1.2 Mya — about 2 occurrences1.2–0 Mya — about 9 occurrences27.3 Mya11.7 ka34.6 Mya0 Mya

18 occurrences of Aulacomya atra 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

18 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

4 formations

San Julian — 49.30°S, 67.72°WSan Julian — 47.13°S, 66.05°WSan Julián — 47.03°S, 66.70°WSan Julián — 49.30°S, 67.72°WMonte Leon Fm — 50.12°S, 68.48°WBredasdorp — 33.88°S, 18.45°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Aulacomya atra has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 12 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Aulacomya atra and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Aulacomya atra and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

267 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 8 sites for Aulacomya atra, 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

7 references

Each of the 18 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. 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 Aulacomya atra

Credit
Rodrigo Fernández
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Aulacomya atra 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 itAulacomya through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Molina 1782)