Melanella thersites

via iDigBio · via iDigBio. 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
- MelanellaPBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB, for Eulimidae
- Life habit
- epifaunalPBDB, for Eulimidae
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Eulimidae
- Vision
- limitedPBDB, for Gastropoda
Time the record covers
At least 2.4 million years on record.
The record covers at least 2.58 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 3.6 Mya to 0 Mya.
21 occurrences of Melanella thersites 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
21 occurrences- Pliocene10%
- Pleistocene90%
- Holoceneunder 1%
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
6 formations
- Lomita Marl Formation5
- Unnamed Formation3
- Fernando Formation2
- Quaternary terrace Formation1
- San Pedro Sand Formation1
- Palos Verdes Sand Formation1
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The named rock units Melanella thersites has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 8 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Melanella thersites and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Melanella thersites and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
917 taxa- Thylacodes squamigerus16 sites
- Californiconus californicus14 sites
- Callianax biplicata14 sites
- Epilucina californica14 sites
- Homalopoma (Homalopoma) luridum14 sites
- Hipponix tumens13 sites
- Nutricola tantilla13 sites
- Alia carinata12 sites
- Amphissa versicolor12 sites
- Crepidula nummaria12 sites
- Crepipatella lingulata12 sites
- Diodora aspera12 sites
- Glans carpenteri12 sites
- Littorina (Littorina) scutulata12 sites
- Mitrella tuberosa12 sites
- Caesia fossatus11 sites
- Chlorostoma funebrale11 sites
- Cumingia californica11 sites
- Hiatella arctica11 sites
- Lottia insessa11 sites
- Lottia scabra11 sites
- Mopalia muscosa11 sites
- Paciocinebrina interfossa11 sites
- Seila montereyensis11 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 17 sites for Melanella thersites, 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
13 references- Geology of San Nicolas Island, California3
- Late Pleistocene faunas from the northwestern coast of Baja California, Mexico3
- New Californian Pleistocene Eulimidae3
- Late Pleistocene molluscan faunas from upper terraces of the Palos Verdes Hills, California2
- Additional Notes on the Pliocene Molluscan Fauna of Los Angeles City2
- Late Pleistocene invertebrates of the Newport Bay area, California1
- Paleoecologic molluscan geography of the Californian Pleistocene1
- Late Pleistocene megafauna of Cayucos, California, and its zoogeographic significance1
- Pleistocene invertebrates from Punta China, Baja California, Mexico, with remarks on the composition of the Pacific coast Quaternary faunas1
- Upper Pleistocene Mollusca from Potrero Canyon, Pacific Palisades, California1
- Geologic Application of Biometrical Analysis of Molluscan Assemblages1
- Report on Pleistocene Molluscan Fauna at Capistrano Beach, Orange County, Calif1
Each of the 21 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. 1 further reference is 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 content1

Picture of Melanella thersites
- Source
- iDigBio
- Credit
- via iDigBio
- Licence
- not stated by the source
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
No 3D scan of Melanella thersites 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.
This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.
Keep going
What may have been alongside itMelanella through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Carpenter 1864)