Elliptio

Elliptio is a genus of medium- to large-sized freshwater mussels, aquatic bivalve mollusks in the family Unionidae, commonly known as the unionids, freshwater mussels or naiads.

Elliptio

Kristof Zyskowski · CC BY 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
PleurobeminiPBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB, for Bivalvia
Life habit
infaunalPBDB, for Bivalvia
Motility
facultatively mobilePBDB, for Bivalvia
Vision
blindPBDB, for Bivalvia
Environment
freshwaterPBDB, for Unionida

Time the record covers

At least 62 million years on record.

The record covers at least 121.4 Mya to 59.24 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 125.77 Mya to 56 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 1 of 21 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 12 of 21 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 8 of 21 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 0 of 21 occurrences127–125 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences125–122 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences122–120 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences96–93 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences93–91 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences91–88 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences88–86 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences86–84 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences84–81 Mya — about 1 occurrence81–79 Mya — about 1 occurrence79–76 Mya — about 1 occurrence76–74 Mya — about 1 occurrence74–72 Mya — about 1 occurrence72–69 Mya — about 2 occurrences69–67 Mya — about 2 occurrences67–64 Mya — about 3 occurrences64–62 Mya — about 2 occurrences62–59 Mya — about 1 occurrence59–57 Mya — about 2 occurrences57–55 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences121.4 Mya59.24 Mya127 Mya55 Mya

21 occurrences of Elliptio on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. 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

21 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

11 formations

Ravenscrag — 49.70°N, 109.00°WRavenscrag — 49.57°N, 108.81°WRavenscrag — 49.40°N, 105.63°WRavenscrag — 49.13°N, 104.88°WRavenscrag — 49.10°N, 102.88°WHell Creek — 47.57°N, 106.95°WNorth Horn — 39.00°N, 111.00°WNorth Horn — 39.10°N, 111.80°WFort Crittenden — 31.70°N, 110.85°WCorral de Enmedio — 31.15°N, 109.88°WCorral de Enmedio — 31.13°N, 109.82°WSt. Mary River — 49.91°N, 112.99°WCamarillas — 40.66°N, 0.90°WKaskapau — 55.72°N, 121.20°WSentinel Butte — 47.63°N, 103.79°WWahweap — 37.60°N, 111.60°WScollard — 52.33°N, 113.12°W

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The named rock units Elliptio has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Elliptio and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Elliptio and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

99 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 19 sites for Elliptio, 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

12 references

Each of the 21 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 Elliptio

Credit
Kristof Zyskowski
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Photogrammetry

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
ELLIPTIO PACHYODON · UF:IP:99691

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 itPleurobemini through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Rafinesque 1819