Celleporidae

Celleporidae is a family of bryozoans – colonial, aquatic, invertebrates – in the order Cheilostomatida. Structurally, they are defined by densely packed zooids. The zooids usually have irregular direction, and are defined by morphological characteristics. Masses of the dead animals can form shallow sediments. Members of the family are recorded from every ocean, even around Antarctica, where they are represented primarily by the genus Osthimosia. Fossils of the family exist as old as from 235 million years ago, during the Triassic period.

Celleporidae

Joanne Porter · CC BY 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
CelleporoideaPBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB, for Cheilostomata
Life habit
epifaunalPBDB, for Cheilostomata
Motility
stationary, attachedPBDB, for Cheilostomata
Vision
blindPBDB, for Gymnolaemata
Environment
marinePBDB, for Lophophorata

Time the record covers

At least 233 million years on record.

The record covers at least 233.6 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 237 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Middle Triassic — about 0 of 208 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 1 of 208 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 0 of 208 occurrencesMiddle Jurassic — about 0 of 208 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 0 of 208 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 0 of 208 occurrencesLate Cretaceous — about 0 of 208 occurrencesPaleocene — about 1 of 208 occurrencesEocene — about 18 of 208 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 22 of 208 occurrencesMiocene — about 100 of 208 occurrencesPliocene — about 19 of 208 occurrencesPleistocene — about 46 of 208 occurrences242–234 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences234–226 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences73–64 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences64–56 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences56–48 Mya — about 2 occurrences48–40 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences40–32 Mya — about 19 occurrences32–24 Mya — about 17 occurrences24–16 Mya — about 30 occurrences16–8.1 Mya — about 59 occurrences8.1–0 Mya — about 79 occurrences233.6 Mya129 ka242 Mya0 Mya

208 occurrences of Celleporidae on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

208 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

34 formations

Boat Cove — 29.28°S, 177.85°WBoat Cove — 29.22°S, 177.83°WBoat Cove — 29.23°S, 177.88°WNiebla Calcarenite — 37.35°N, 6.67°WKolymbia — 36.25°N, 28.17°EDayrell — 29.23°S, 177.82°WDayrell — 29.25°S, 177.82°WWataepoolan limestone — 37.93°S, 141.41°EWataepoolan limestone — 37.93°S, 141.51°EGlenaulin clay — 37.93°S, 141.41°EKhari Nadi — 23.40°N, 68.80°EMt Brown "E" Limestone — 43.02°S, 172.71°EMoodys Branch — 31.89°N, 88.39°WMoodys Branch — 32.32°N, 90.16°WPinczow — 50.47°N, 20.80°EMoin — 9.99°N, 83.05°WMoin — 10.01°N, 83.06°WMarianna Limestone — 31.15°N, 87.15°WMarianna Limestone — 31.52°N, 87.33°WOtotara Limestone — 45.07°S, 170.92°EOtotara Limestone — 45.27°S, 170.86°ETimms Point Silt — 33.73°N, 118.28°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.60°N, 117.88°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.74°N, 118.28°WLower Coralline Limestone — 35.93°N, 14.44°EWilliston Limestone — 29.77°N, 82.87°WWilliston Limestone — 29.29°N, 82.75°WPolonez Cove — 62.25°S, 59.00°WRed Bluff — 32.32°N, 90.89°WRed Bluff — 31.54°N, 87.52°WLagos- Portimao — 37.08°N, 8.23°WLomita Marl — 33.75°N, 118.30°WLomita Marl — 33.74°N, 118.29°WPachuta Marl — 31.14°N, 87.94°WRudeis — 27.30°N, 33.58°EBrèches rouges de Carboneras — 37.60°N, 1.32°W

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The named rock units Celleporidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 10 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 115 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Celleporidae and its relatives

Miocene

Where Celleporidae and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

2,435 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 97 sites for Celleporidae, 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

50 references

Each of the 208 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. 38 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 Celleporidae

Credit
Joanne Porter
Licence
CC BY 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Celleporidae 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 itCelleporoidea through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Busk 1852