Cucullaea gigantea

Cucullaea gigantea is an extinct species of false ark shell found in the United States, in the Aquia Formation in Maryland and Virginia along the Potomac River and its tributaries, and in Alabama. They flourished in marine environments during the Paleocene, ranging from 58.7 to 55.8 million years ago.

Cucullaea gigantea

Glenn Morrow · 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
CucullaeaPBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB, for Cucullaea
Life habit
infaunalPBDB, for Cucullaea
Motility
facultatively mobilePBDB, for Cucullaea
Vision
limitedPBDB, for Cucullaeidae

Time the record covers

At most 3.3 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 59.24 Mya and 56 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Paleocene — about 25 of 25 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 0 of 25 occurrences59–59 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences59–59 Mya — about 1 occurrence59–59 Mya — about 1 occurrence59–59 Mya — about 1 occurrence59–59 Mya — about 1 occurrence59–58 Mya — about 1 occurrence58–58 Mya — about 1 occurrence58–58 Mya — about 1 occurrence58–58 Mya — about 1 occurrence58–58 Mya — about 1 occurrence58–58 Mya — about 1 occurrence58–58 Mya — about 1 occurrence58–57 Mya — about 1 occurrence57–57 Mya — about 1 occurrence57–57 Mya — about 1 occurrence57–57 Mya — about 1 occurrence57–57 Mya — about 1 occurrence57–57 Mya — about 1 occurrence57–57 Mya — about 1 occurrence57–56 Mya — about 1 occurrence56–56 Mya — about 1 occurrence56–56 Mya — about 1 occurrence56–56 Mya — about 1 occurrence56–56 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences59.74 Mya55.5 Mya

25 occurrences of Cucullaea gigantea on record, most of them in the Paleocene. 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

25 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

2 formations

Aquia — 38.33°N, 77.27°WAquia — 38.82°N, 76.75°WAquia — 38.71°N, 77.02°WAquia — 38.87°N, 76.75°WAquia — 38.99°N, 76.16°WAquia — 38.90°N, 76.56°WAquia — 38.60°N, 77.14°WAquia — 38.46°N, 77.27°WAquia — 39.37°N, 75.88°WAquia — 38.52°N, 77.10°WAquia — 38.43°N, 77.38°WAquia — 38.27°N, 77.18°WAquia — 38.50°N, 77.59°WTuscahoma — 31.82°N, 87.37°WTuscahoma — 31.54°N, 87.52°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Cucullaea gigantea has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Cucullaea gigantea and its relatives

Paleocene

Where Cucullaea gigantea and its relatives were recorded in the Paleocene.

Found in the same rock

103 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 5 sites for Cucullaea gigantea, 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

6 references

Each of the 25 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 content2

Picture of Cucullaea gigantea

Credit
Glenn Morrow
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

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 itCucullaea through timeFormations of the PaleoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Conrad 1862