Cerithiopsidella cosmia
Cerithiopsidella cosmia is a species of very small sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs in the family Cerithiopsidae. It was described by Paul Bartsch in 1907.

Jeff Goddard · CC BY-NC 4.0 · via GBIF. 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
- Cerithiopsis (Cerithiopsidella)PBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB, for Cerithiopsidae
- Life habit
- epifaunalPBDB, for Cerithiopsidae
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Cerithiopsidae
- Vision
- limitedPBDB, for Gastropoda
Time the record covers
At most 2.6 million years on record.
Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 2.58 Mya and 11.7 ka, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.
9 occurrences of Cerithiopsidella cosmia 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
9 occurrences- Pleistocene100%
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
5 formations
- Lomita Marl Formation2
- Palos Verdes Sand Formation2
- Palos Verdes Formation1
- Quaternary terrace Formation1
- San Pedro Sand Formation1
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The named rock units Cerithiopsidella cosmia has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Cerithiopsidella cosmia and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Cerithiopsidella cosmia and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
747 taxa- Caecum crebricinctum6 sites
- Caesia perpinguis6 sites
- Californiconus californicus6 sites
- Callianax biplicata6 sites
- Calliostoma canaliculatum6 sites
- Crepidula onyx6 sites
- Crepipatella lingulata6 sites
- Dallocardia quadragenarium6 sites
- Littorina (Littorina) scutulata6 sites
- Mitrella tuberosa6 sites
- Monophorus pedroanus6 sites
- Thylacodes squamigerus6 sites
- Acanthinucella spirata5 sites
- Acteocina culcitella5 sites
- Amphissa versicolor5 sites
- Balcis micans5 sites
- Caesia fossatus5 sites
- Callianax baetica5 sites
- Calliostoma tricolor5 sites
- Cerithiopsidella antefilosa5 sites
- Crepidula nummaria5 sites
- Cryptomya californica5 sites
- Dentalium neohexagonum5 sites
- Donax (Donax) gouldii5 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 6 sites for Cerithiopsidella cosmia, 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
5 references- Geology and Paleontology of Palos Verdes Hills, California4
- Late Pleistocene invertebrates of the Newport Bay area, California2
- Upper Pleistocene Mollusca from Potrero Canyon, Pacific Palisades, California1
- Report on Pleistocene Molluscan Fauna at Capistrano Beach, Orange County, Calif1
- An Upper Pleistocene fauna from the Baldwin Hills, Los Angeles County, California1
Each of the 9 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 Cerithiopsidella cosmia
- Source
- GBIF
- Credit
- Jeff Goddard
- Licence
- CC BY-NC 4.0
- Commercial use
- the licence does not allow it
No 3D scan of Cerithiopsidella cosmia 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 itCerithiopsis (Cerithiopsidella) through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Bartsch 1907)