Lunarca ovalis

Lunarca ovalis, also known as the blood ark clam, is a species of clam in the family Arcidae. It can be found along North America coast of the Atlantic Ocean, ranging from Massachusetts to the West Indies and Brazil. It resides from the low-tide line to a depth of ten feet.

Lunarca ovalis

Eric A. Lazo-Wasem · 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
Anadara (Lunarca)PBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB, for Anadara (Lunarca)
Life habit
semi-infaunalPBDB, for Anadara (Lunarca)
Motility
facultatively mobilePBDB, for Anadara (Lunarca)
Vision
limitedPBDB, for Arcidae
Environment
lagoonal,coastal,inner shelf,outer shelf,oceanic,brackish,freshwaterPBDB, for Arcidae

Time the record covers

At least 13 million years on record.

The record covers at least 13.82 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 15.98 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 1 of 74 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 9 of 74 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 49 of 74 occurrencesPleistocene16–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences14–14 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.5–4.9 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences4.9–4.4 Mya — about 1 occurrence4.4–3.8 Mya — about 1 occurrence3.8–3.3 Mya — about 2 occurrences3.3–2.7 Mya — about 3 occurrences2.7–2.2 Mya — about 4 occurrences2.2–1.6 Mya — about 4 occurrences1.6–1.1 Mya — about 4 occurrences1.1–549 ka Mya — about 5 occurrences549 ka–0 Mya — about 48 occurrences13.82 Mya11.7 ka16.5 Mya0 Mya

74 occurrences of Lunarca ovalis 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

74 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

15 formations

Pamlico — 38.55°N, 75.08°WPamlico — 32.69°N, 80.23°WPamlico — 32.78°N, 79.93°WPamlico — 32.64°N, 80.01°WPamlico — 34.04°N, 77.89°WPamlico — 34.78°N, 76.69°WPamlico — 35.00°N, 76.79°WPamlico — 35.14°N, 76.77°WPamlico — 35.50°N, 76.27°WPamlico — 33.56°N, 79.08°WMichoud — 30.05°N, 89.96°WMare — 10.00°N, 64.00°WMare — 10.61°N, 63.52°WDuplin — 34.90°N, 78.05°WHorry Clay — 34.97°N, 76.97°WHorry Clay — 33.69°N, 78.89°WNew Orleans Barrier Trend — 30.05°N, 89.96°WAcredale — 36.79°N, 76.17°WWaccamaw — 34.56°N, 78.49°WWaccamaw — 34.33°N, 78.20°WCanepatch — 33.83°N, 78.89°WAnastasia — 26.93°N, 80.09°WBermont — 26.68°N, 80.67°WMount Hope — 9.33°N, 79.90°WCumana — 10.47°N, 64.15°WCastilletes — 11.91°N, 71.35°WChuy — 33.88°S, 53.52°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Lunarca ovalis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 27 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Lunarca ovalis and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Lunarca ovalis and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

649 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 24 sites for Lunarca ovalis, 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

18 references

Each of the 74 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. 6 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 Lunarca ovalis

Credit
Eric A. Lazo-Wasem
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Lunarca ovalis · FMNH:Invertebrate Zoology:183609

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 itAnadara (Lunarca) through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Bruguiere 1789)