Glycymeris decussata
Glycymeris decussata, or the decussate bittersweet, is a species of bivalve mollusc in the family Glycymerididae. It can be found in Caribbean waters, ranging from Florida to the West Indies and Brazil.

Linnaeus, 1758 · 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- 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 5.2 million years on record.
The record covers at least 5.333 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 11.63 Mya to 11.7 ka.
20 occurrences of Glycymeris decussata 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
20 occurrences- Miocene5%
- Pliocene40%
- Pleistocene55%
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
7 formations
- Mare Formation · Cabo Blanco Group4
- Waccamaw Formation2
- Playa Grande Formation · Cabo Blanco Group1
- Belmont Formation1
- Devonshire Formation1
- Mekran Formation1
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The named rock units Glycymeris decussata has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 9 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Glycymeris decussata and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Glycymeris decussata and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
502 taxa- Turbo5 sites
- Turritella5 sites
- Anomia4 sites
- Calliostoma4 sites
- Chione cancellata4 sites
- Diodora cayenensis4 sites
- Gouldia4 sites
- Ostrea4 sites
- Plicatula4 sites
- Solen4 sites
- Tucetona pectinata4 sites
- Anadara3 sites
- Architectonica nobilis3 sites
- Barbatia (Ustularca) fusca3 sites
- Cerithium3 sites
- Chlamys3 sites
- Codakia orbicularis3 sites
- Diodora3 sites
- Glyptoactis (Glyptoactis) wendellwoodringi3 sites
- Lima lima3 sites
- Macrocallista maculata3 sites
- Nassarius3 sites
- Oliva (Ispidula) tisiphona3 sites
- Pecten (Pecten)3 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 12 sites for Glycymeris decussata, 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
10 references- Late Cenozoic pelecypods from northern Venezuela5
- Geology of the Republic of Haiti3
- The marine Pleistocene mollusks of Bermuda2
- Geology of the Coastal Plain of South Carolina2
- Mollusca from the raised beach deposits of the Kwantô region2
- The Miocene of Northern Costa Rica2
- Revised list of South African late Tertiary and Pleistocene marine Mollusca1
- Pliocene Mollusca of Southern Florida1
- Mollusques Pleistocenes de la Cote Francaise des Somalis [Pleistocene molluscs from French Somaliland]1
- Description of Mollusca from the post-Eocene Tertiary formation of north-western India: Gastropoda (in part) and Lamellibranchiata1
Each of the 20 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 Glycymeris decussata
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Linnaeus, 1758
- Licence
- CC0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Glycymeris decussata 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 itGlycymeris through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Linnaeus 1758)