Dentalium

Searched as Dentalium sexangulum. The Paleobiology Database treats Dentalium as the accepted name.

Dentalium is a large genus of tooth shells or tusk shells, marine scaphopod molluscs in the family Dentaliidae. The genus contains 50 described species and about 50 extinct species.

Dentalium

H. Zell · 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
DentaliidaePBDB
Diet
deposit feederPBDB, for Dentaliida
Life habit
semi-infaunalPBDB, for Dentaliida
Motility
slow-movingPBDB, for Dentaliida
Vision
blindPBDB, for Scaphopoda

Time the record covers

At least 25 million years on record.

The record covers at least 27.3 Mya to 1.8 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 33.9 Mya to 774 ka.

Eocene — about 0 of 14 occurrencesOligocene — about 1 of 14 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 0 of 14 occurrencesPliocene — about 9 of 14 occurrencesPleistocene — about 4 of 14 occurrences35–33 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences33–32 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.9–4.7 Mya — about 2 occurrences4.7–3.6 Mya — about 4 occurrences3.6–2.4 Mya — about 3 occurrences2.4–1.3 Mya — about 2 occurrences1.3–111 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence27.3 Mya1.8 Mya34.6 Mya111 ka

14 occurrences of Dentalium on record, most of them in the Pliocene. 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

14 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

8 formations

Tielrode — 51.12°N, 4.18°EOosterhout — 51.70°N, 5.73°ECipero Marl — 10.25°N, 61.48°WEcija — 37.34°N, 5.84°WBlue Clays — 43.57°N, 10.35°EMonte Giogo — 44.85°N, 9.86°EMonte Vaticano — 41.90°N, 12.45°EArgille Azzurre — 43.58°N, 10.92°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Dentalium has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 6 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Dentalium and its relatives

Pliocene

Where Dentalium and its relatives were recorded in the Pliocene.

Found in the same rock

1,851 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 1,304 sites for Dentalium, 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

12 references

Each of the 14 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 content3

Picture of Dentalium

Credit
H. Zell
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Dentalium sp. · MZRC:2082-2

3D model

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

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 itDentaliidae through timeFormations of the PlioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Linnaeus 1758