Helix

Helix is a genus of large, air-breathing land snails native to the western Palaearctic and characterized by a globular shell. It is the type genus of the family Helicidae and one of the animal genera described by Carl Linnaeus at the dawn of the zoological nomenclature. Members of the genus first appeared in the fossil record during the Miocene.

Helix

Waugsberg · 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
HelicidaePBDB
Life habit
epifaunalPBDB, for Gastropoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Gastropoda
Vision
limitedPBDB, for Gastropoda

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 2 of 50 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 50 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 17 of 50 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 3 of 50 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 8 of 50 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 2 of 50 occurrencesPleistocene — about 17 of 50 occurrences74–71 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences71–69 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences69–66 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences66–64 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences61–59 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences59–56 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences56–54 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences54–52 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences52–49 Mya — about 1 occurrence49–47 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences47–44 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences44–42 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences42–39 Mya — about 1 occurrence39–37 Mya — about 3 occurrences37–34 Mya — about 7 occurrences34–32 Mya — about 2 occurrences32–29 Mya — about 1 occurrence29–27 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences22–20 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences20–17 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 2 occurrences15–12 Mya — about 2 occurrences12–9.8 Mya — about 2 occurrences9.8–7.4 Mya — about 1 occurrence7.4–4.9 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences4.9–2.5 Mya — about 2 occurrences2.5–0 Mya — about 18 occurrences66 Mya11.7 ka74 Mya0 Mya

50 occurrences of Helix 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

50 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

Bembridge Limestone — 50.67°N, 1.53°WBembridge Limestone — 50.67°N, 1.08°WCreechbarrow Limestone — 50.65°N, 2.12°WHeadon Beds — 50.72°N, 1.59°WOsborne Beds — 50.71°N, 1.10°WWillwood — 44.78°N, 108.97°WLower Bone Bed — 39.25°N, 8.68°WDegari — 30.08°N, 67.22°EMiocene Lower Continental Complex — 41.44°N, 2.00°ECorsicana — 30.20°N, 97.61°WBridger — 41.28°N, 110.03°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.74°N, 118.28°WPierre Shale — 43.85°N, 102.34°W

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The named rock units Helix has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 29 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Helix and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Helix and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

972 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 34 sites for Helix, 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

33 references

Each of the 50 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. 21 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 Helix

Credit
Waugsberg
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Hedera helix · rng:P0042298

Smithsonian Open Access was 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 itHelicidae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Linnaeus 1758