Glycymeris americana

Glycymeris americana, or the American bittersweet, is a species of bivalve mollusc in the family Glycymerididae. It can be found along the Atlantic coast of North America, ranging from Virginia to Texas and Brazil.

Glycymeris americana

H. Zell · 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
Sits inside
GlycymerisPBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB, for Glycymeris
Life habit
infaunalPBDB, for Glycymeris
Motility
facultatively mobilePBDB, for Glycymeris
Vision
blindPBDB, for Bivalvia
Environment
coastal,inner shelf,outer shelf,oceanicPBDB, for Glycymerididae

Time the record covers

At least 11 million years on record.

The record covers at least 11.63 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 13.82 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Miocene — about 2 of 63 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 27 of 63 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 34 of 63 occurrencesPleistocene14–13 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences5.7–5.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.3–4.8 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences4.8–4.3 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences4.3–3.8 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences3.8–3.3 Mya — about 6 occurrences3.3–2.9 Mya — about 11 occurrences2.9–2.4 Mya — about 9 occurrences2.4–1.9 Mya — about 5 occurrences1.9–1.4 Mya — about 5 occurrences1.4–955 ka Mya — about 5 occurrences955 ka–477 ka Mya — about 4 occurrences477 ka–0 Mya — about 12 occurrences11.63 Mya129 ka14.3 Mya0 Mya

63 occurrences of Glycymeris americana 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

63 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

17 formations

Waccamaw — 34.23°N, 77.94°WWaccamaw — 34.33°N, 78.20°WWaccamaw — 34.56°N, 78.49°WWaccamaw — 34.29°N, 78.51°WWaccamaw — 34.07°N, 78.27°WWaccamaw — 33.97°N, 78.39°WWaccamaw — 34.17°N, 78.60°WWaccamaw — 33.63°N, 79.16°WWaccamaw — 33.40°N, 79.25°WDuplin — 34.50°N, 79.11°WDuplin — 34.62°N, 79.01°WDuplin — 34.90°N, 78.05°WJackson Bluff — 30.43°N, 84.57°WChowan RIver — 35.28°N, 76.65°WChowan RIver — 36.05°N, 76.73°WYorktown — 35.51°N, 77.62°WYorktown — 37.23°N, 76.51°WYorktown — 37.06°N, 76.63°WYorktown — 35.15°N, 77.14°WBear Bluff — 33.90°N, 78.84°WBear Bluff — 34.29°N, 78.51°WBear Bluff — 26.76°N, 81.44°WCanepatch — 33.83°N, 78.89°WBermont — 26.89°N, 82.01°WBermont — 26.38°N, 80.71°WDevonshire — 32.36°N, 64.71°WDevonshire — 32.28°N, 64.77°WBelmont — 32.33°N, 64.69°WHorry Clay — 33.69°N, 78.89°WCaloosahatchee — 25.91°N, 81.36°WCalvert — 38.54°N, 76.73°WJames City — 35.28°N, 76.65°WPamlico — 32.69°N, 80.23°WAnastasia — 26.98°N, 80.08°WShoal River — 30.72°N, 86.12°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Glycymeris americana has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 5 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Glycymeris americana and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Glycymeris americana and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

1,070 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 36 sites for Glycymeris americana, 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

19 references

Each of the 63 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. 7 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 content2

Picture of Glycymeris americana

Credit
H. Zell
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC0 Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

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 itGlycymeris through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Defrance 1826)