Dromiidae

Dromiidae is a family of crabs, often referred to as sponge crabs. They are small or medium-sized crabs which get their name from the ability to shape a living sponge into a portable shelter for themselves. A sponge crab cuts out a fragment from a sponge and trims it to its own shape using its claws. The last two pairs of legs are shorter than other legs and bend upward over the crab's carapace, to hold the sponge in place. The sponge grows along with the crab, providing a consistent shelter.

Dromiidae

Hans Hillewaert · 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
DromioideaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Decapoda
Life habit
epifaunalPBDB, for Decapoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Malacostraca
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Malacostraca

Time the record covers

At least 100 million years on record.

The record covers at least 100.5 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 106.3 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Early Cretaceous — about 1 of 70 occurrencesLate Cretaceous — about 1 of 70 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 9 of 70 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 32 of 70 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 7 of 70 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 17 of 70 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 2 of 70 occurrencesPleistocene — about 1 of 70 occurrences108–105 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences105–101 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences101–98 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences72–69 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences69–65 Mya — about 1 occurrence65–61 Mya — about 4 occurrences61–58 Mya — about 3 occurrences58–54 Mya — about 4 occurrences54–51 Mya — about 5 occurrences51–47 Mya — about 5 occurrences47–43 Mya — about 6 occurrences43–40 Mya — about 5 occurrences40–36 Mya — about 4 occurrences36–33 Mya — about 6 occurrences33–29 Mya — about 3 occurrences29–25 Mya — about 2 occurrences25–22 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences18–14 Mya — about 1 occurrence14–11 Mya — about 12 occurrences11–7.2 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences7.2–3.6 Mya — about 5 occurrences3.6–0 Mya — about 2 occurrences100.5 Mya129 ka108 Mya0 Mya

70 occurrences of Dromiidae on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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

70 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

24 formations

London Clay — 51.51°N, 0.24°ELondon Clay — 51.42°N, 0.90°ELondon Clay — 51.58°N, 0.15°WLondon Clay — 50.78°N, 0.70°WSerraduy — 42.32°N, 0.54°EElmore — 50.80°N, 1.20°WWills Point — 31.67°N, 96.57°WWills Point — 31.93°N, 96.43°WCastelgomberto — 45.50°N, 11.40°ECastelgomberto — 45.58°N, 11.38°ELeitha Limestone — 47.83°N, 16.48°EPriabona Marl — 45.47°N, 10.97°EVincentown — 39.97°N, 74.68°WTortachilla — 35.13°S, 138.48°ENdalithoni Limestone — 17.23°S, 178.95°EBoom — 51.16°N, 4.12°EUpper Coralline Limestone — 35.93°N, 14.33°ENdalithoni — 17.24°S, 178.94°WDenton — 33.78°N, 96.52°WLillebælt Clay — 55.60°N, 9.82°ESantee — 33.35°N, 80.23°WTupelo Bay — 33.33°N, 79.67°WSantee Limestone — 33.27°N, 79.65°WCalcareniti di Castelgomberto — 45.43°N, 11.52°EPalos Verdes Sand — 33.99°N, 118.45°WMargas de Pamplona — 42.47°N, 0.23°WCalcaire de Vigny — 49.07°N, 1.92°EKambuhel — 47.75°N, 16.03°ENavesink — 40.31°N, 74.22°W

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The named rock units Dromiidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 33 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Dromiidae and its relatives

Eocene

Where Dromiidae and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

1,625 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 46 sites for Dromiidae, 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

40 references

Each of the 70 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. 28 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 content1

Picture of Dromiidae

Credit
Hans Hillewaert
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Dromiidae 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.

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 itDromioidea through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. De Haan 1833