Discohelix californicus

via iDigBio · via iDigBio. 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
- DiscohelixPBDB
- Diet
- grazerPBDB, for Vetigastropoda
- Life habit
- epifaunalPBDB, for Vetigastropoda
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Vetigastropoda
- Vision
- limitedPBDB, for Gastropoda
Time the record covers
At most 10 million years on record.
Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 66 Mya and 56 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.
3 occurrences of Discohelix californicus 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
3 occurrences- Paleocene100%
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
Loading coastlines…
The named rock units Discohelix californicus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.
Discohelix californicus and its relatives
PaleoceneWhere Discohelix californicus and its relatives were recorded in the Paleocene.
Found in the same rock
62 taxa- Cucullaea mathewsonii3 sites
- Dentalium cooperi3 sites
- Polinices hornii3 sites
- Flabellum cuneiforme2 sites
- Nuculana (Saccella) gabbii2 sites
- Palaeopsammia zitteli2 sites
- Pholadomya (Pholadomya) nasuta2 sites
- Pseudoperissolax tricarnatus2 sites
- Scaphander (Mirascapha) costatus2 sites
- Surcula merriami2 sites
- Acesta (Acesta) multiradiata1 site
- Acila (Truncacila) decisa1 site
- Actaeon lawsoni1 site
- Amauropsis martinezensis1 site
- Ancilla burroensis1 site
- Architectonica tuberculata1 site
- Brachidontes (Brachidontes) cowlitzensis1 site
- Brachysphingus gibbosus1 site
- Brachysphingus sinuatus1 site
- Bullinula subglobosa1 site
- Cancellaria1 site
- Cardiomya hannibali1 site
- Chondrichthyes1 site
- Chrysodomus burroensis1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Discohelix californicus, 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
3 references- Geology of the coast ranges immediately north of the San Francisco Bay region, California1
- A contribution to the paleontology of the Martinez Eocene of California1
- Fauna of the Martinez Eocene of California1
Each of the 3 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 Discohelix californicus
- Source
- iDigBio
- Credit
- via iDigBio
- Licence
- not stated by the source
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
No 3D scan of Discohelix californicus was found in Sketchfab.
Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.
This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.
Keep going
What may have been alongside itDiscohelix through timeFormations of the PaleoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Weaver 1905