Fordilla

Fordilla is an extinct genus of early bivalves, one of two genera in the extinct family Fordillidae. The genus is known solely from Early Cambrian fossils found in North America, Greenland, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. The genus currently contains three described species, Fordilla germanica, Fordilla sibirica, and the type species Fordilla troyensis.

Fordilla

C.D. Walcott · Public Domain · 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
FordillidaePBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB
Life habit
epifaunalPBDB
Motility
stationaryPBDB
Vision
blindPBDB, for Fordillidae
Environment
marinePBDB, for Fordillida

Time the record covers

At least 8.9 million years on record.

The record covers at least 521 Mya to 512.1 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 538.8 Mya to 506.5 Mya.

Cambrian — about 13 of 13 occurrencesCambrian539–538 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences538–537 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences537–536 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences536–535 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences535–534 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences534–533 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences533–532 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences532–530 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences530–529 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences529–528 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences528–527 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences527–526 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences526–525 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences525–524 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences524–523 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences523–522 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences522–520 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences520–519 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences519–518 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences518–517 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences517–516 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences516–515 Mya — about 1 occurrence515–514 Mya — about 1 occurrence514–513 Mya — about 1 occurrence513–511 Mya — about 1 occurrence511–510 Mya — about 1 occurrence510–509 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences509–508 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences508–507 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences507–506 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences521 Mya512.1 Mya539.4 Mya505.9 Mya

13 occurrences of Fordilla on record, most of them in the Cambrian. 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

13 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

12 formations

Buen — 82.40°N, 51.33°WBuen — 82.87°N, 41.08°WSchodack — 42.53°N, 73.69°WFosters Point — 46.00°N, 60.00°WZwetau — 51.17°N, 15.00°EHartshill — 52.57°N, 1.55°WBastion — 74.35°N, 22.77°WWest Castleton — 42.25°N, 73.65°WCal Tepe — 37.42°N, 31.85°ETyuser — 71.03°N, 127.48°EForteau — 49.52°N, 57.71°WAftenstjernesø Fjord — 82.25°N, 36.00°WEmyaksin — 70.72°N, 112.88°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Fordilla has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Fordilla and its relatives

Cambrian

Where Fordilla and its relatives were recorded in the Cambrian.

Found in the same rock

106 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 9 sites for Fordilla, 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 13 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 Fordilla

Credit
C.D. Walcott
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Fordilla 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 itFordillidae through timeFormations of the CambrianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Barrande 1881