Epilucina californica

Epilucina californica is a species of small saltwater clams in the family Lucinidae. It is found from central California to Baja California. Historical records claim that it lived from Crescent City to San Diego. The oldest known fossil record of this species is from the Miocene of Japan, indicating that it likely originated in the Eastern North Pacific and expanded before being restricted to its current range.

Epilucina californica

Conrad, 1837 · CC0 · 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
California lucinePBDB
Sits inside
EpilucinaPBDB
Diet
chemosymbioticPBDB, for Lucinidae
Life habit
deep infaunalPBDB, for Lucinidae
Motility
facultatively mobilePBDB, for Lucinidae
Vision
blindPBDB, for Bivalvia

Time the record covers

At least 15 million years on record.

The record covers at least 15.98 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 23.04 Mya to 0 Mya.

Oligocene — about 0 of 100 occurrencesMiocene — about 1 of 100 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 9 of 100 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 90 of 100 occurrencesPleistocene24–23 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.5–4.7 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences4.7–3.9 Mya — about 1 occurrence3.9–3.1 Mya — about 3 occurrences3.1–2.4 Mya — about 6 occurrences2.4–1.6 Mya — about 9 occurrences1.6–785 ka Mya — about 8 occurrences785 ka–0 Mya — about 70 occurrences15.98 Mya129 ka23.5 Mya0 Mya

100 occurrences of Epilucina californica 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

100 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

13 formations

Unnamed — 33.24°N, 119.51°WUnnamed — 33.24°N, 119.55°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.99°N, 118.45°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.60°N, 117.88°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.71°N, 118.27°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.80°N, 118.17°WTimms Point Silt — 33.73°N, 118.28°WSan Pedro Sand — 33.74°N, 118.28°WPico — 34.36°N, 118.56°WPico — 34.33°N, 118.72°WPico — 34.34°N, 118.47°WPico — 34.35°N, 118.52°WLomita Marl — 33.79°N, 118.34°WFernando — 34.05°N, 118.25°WFernando — 34.05°N, 118.26°WQuaternary terrace — 33.75°N, 118.33°WPalos Verdes — 33.63°N, 117.90°WSanta Barbara — 34.40°N, 119.69°WCareaga Sandstone — 34.88°N, 120.51°WVaqueros — 34.07°N, 119.66°WSan Diego — 32.54°N, 117.11°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Epilucina californica has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 47 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Epilucina californica and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Epilucina californica and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

1,123 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 84 sites for Epilucina californica, 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

38 references

Each of the 100 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. 26 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 Epilucina californica

Credit
Conrad, 1837
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Epilucina californica 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 itEpilucina through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Conrad 1837)