Ensis

Ensis is a genus of medium-sized edible saltwater clams, littoral bivalve molluscs in the family Pharidae. Ensis, or razor clams, are known in much of Scotland as spoots, for the spouts of water they eject while burrowing into the sand, when visible at low tide. This term may also colloquially include members of the genus Solen.

Ensis

No machine-readable author provided. Uwe kils assumed (based on copyright claims). · 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
Also called
razor clamPBDB
Sits inside
PharidaePBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB
Life habit
infaunalPBDB
Motility
facultatively mobilePBDB
Vision
blindPBDB, for Bivalvia

Time the record covers

At least 65 million years on record.

The record covers at least 66 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 72.2 Mya to 0 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 1 of 168 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 168 occurrencesEocene — about 2 of 168 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 1 of 168 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 42 of 168 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 40 of 168 occurrencesPleistocene — about 76 of 168 occurrences74–71 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences71–69 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences69–66 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences66–64 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences42–39 Mya — about 1 occurrence39–37 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences25–22 Mya — about 2 occurrences22–20 Mya — about 4 occurrences20–17 Mya — about 6 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 5 occurrences15–12 Mya — about 9 occurrences12–9.8 Mya — about 7 occurrences9.8–7.4 Mya — about 6 occurrences7.4–4.9 Mya — about 5 occurrences4.9–2.5 Mya — about 40 occurrences2.5–0 Mya — about 80 occurrences66 Mya11.7 ka74 Mya0 Mya

168 occurrences of Ensis 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

168 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

57 formations

Pamlico — 38.55°N, 75.08°WPamlico — 32.78°N, 79.93°WPamlico — 32.69°N, 80.23°WPamlico — 35.50°N, 76.27°WPamlico — 35.14°N, 76.77°WPamlico — 35.00°N, 76.79°WPamlico — 34.77°N, 76.65°WPamlico — 34.04°N, 77.89°WPamlico — 36.33°N, 76.17°WLillo — 51.25°N, 4.28°EWaccamaw — 34.21°N, 81.31°WWaccamaw — 34.56°N, 78.49°WWaccamaw — 34.33°N, 78.20°WWaccamaw — 33.97°N, 78.39°WAcredale — 36.79°N, 76.17°WAcredale — 36.73°N, 76.34°WKirkwood — 39.08°N, 74.82°WKirkwood — 39.40°N, 75.04°WKirkwood — 39.46°N, 75.30°WKirkwood — 39.00°N, 75.12°WHorry Clay — 34.97°N, 76.97°WHorry Clay — 33.69°N, 78.89°WDuplin — 34.90°N, 78.05°WBerada — 51.10°N, 5.80°EYorktown — 37.23°N, 76.51°WYorktown — 34.90°N, 78.05°WShoal River — 30.72°N, 86.12°WShoal River — 30.63°N, 86.17°WChowan RIver — 35.28°N, 76.65°WChowan RIver — 36.05°N, 76.73°WSt Mary's — 38.36°N, 76.39°WSt Mary's — 37.66°N, 76.75°WChoptank — 38.41°N, 76.48°WChoptank — 38.52°N, 76.51°WChoptank — 38.39°N, 76.57°WMichoud — 30.05°N, 89.96°WOak Grove — 30.92°N, 86.57°WJames City — 35.28°N, 76.65°WJames City — 35.04°N, 76.99°WCalvert — 39.20°N, 75.60°WCalvert — 38.64°N, 76.52°WGoose Creek — 33.33°N, 80.15°WGoose Creek — 33.03°N, 80.39°WBaghmara — 25.27°N, 90.23°EBaghmara — 25.18°N, 90.67°EPampa del Palo Terrace — 17.58°S, 71.17°WOosterhout — 51.70°N, 5.73°ERed Crag — 51.85°N, 1.28°ERed Crag — 52.75°N, 1.53°EFlanner Beach — 35.06°N, 76.87°WQuebrada Chocolate — 9.97°N, 83.07°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Ensis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 33 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 39 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Ensis and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Ensis and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

2,219 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 82 sites for Ensis, and this reads all of them. Of that, one read hit the database's own return limit, so every count below is a floor rather than a total. 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

59 references

Each of the 168 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. 47 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 Ensis

Credit
No machine-readable author provided. Uwe kils assumed (based on copyright claims).
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Ensis 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 itPharidae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Schumacher 1817