Diodora aspera

Diodora aspera, also known as the rough keyhole limpet, is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Fissurellidae, the keyhole limpets. Although similar in appearance to a common limpet, it has a hole near the apex of its shell, and is only distantly related. It often has a scaled polychaete worm Arctonoe vittata living inside its shell as a commensal. In the event that it is attacked by a starfish, it extends flaps of mantle to defend itself, and the worm also helps drive the predator away.

Diodora aspera

Jan Delsing. · Public Domain · 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
Also called
rough keyhole limpetPBDB
Sits inside
DiodoraPBDB
Diet
grazer, carnivorePBDB, for Diodora
Life habit
epifaunalPBDB, for Diodora
Motility
facultatively mobilePBDB, for Diodora
Vision
limitedPBDB, for Gastropoda

Time the record covers

At least 2.4 million years on record.

The record covers at least 2.58 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 5.333 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 0 of 64 occurrencesPliocene — about 2 of 64 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 62 of 64 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 64 occurrences5.4–5.3 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.3–5.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.1–4.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.9–4.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.7–4.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.5–4.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.3–4.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.1–3.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.9–3.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.7–3.5 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.5–3.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.3–3.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.1–2.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.9–2.7 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.7–2.5 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences2.5–2.3 Mya — about 2 occurrences2.3–2.1 Mya — about 2 occurrences2.1–1.9 Mya — about 2 occurrences1.9–1.8 Mya — about 2 occurrences1.8–1.6 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.6–1.4 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.4–1.2 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.2–972 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence972 ka–778 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence778 ka–583 ka Mya — about 3 occurrences583 ka–389 ka Mya — about 3 occurrences389 ka–194 ka Mya — about 3 occurrences194 ka–0 Mya — about 40 occurrences2.58 Mya129 ka5.8 Mya0 Mya

64 occurrences of Diodora aspera 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

64 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

9 formations

Unnamed — 33.24°N, 119.51°WUnnamed — 33.24°N, 119.55°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.80°N, 118.16°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.60°N, 117.88°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.71°N, 118.27°WSan Pedro Sand — 33.74°N, 118.28°WHookton — 40.98°N, 124.11°WFernando — 34.05°N, 118.25°WTimms Point Silt — 33.73°N, 118.28°WCareaga Sandstone — 34.90°N, 120.32°WPico — 34.33°N, 118.72°WQuaternary terrace — 33.75°N, 118.34°W

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The named rock units Diodora aspera has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 32 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Diodora aspera and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Diodora aspera and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

1,021 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 53 sites for Diodora aspera, 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

26 references

Each of the 64 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. 14 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 content2

Picture of Diodora aspera

Credit
Jan Delsing.
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Diodora aspera · SMF:360090

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 itDiodora through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Rathke 1833)