Mellita

Mellita

Uncredited · via Wikidata/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
MellitidaePBDB
Diet
detritivorePBDB, for Clypeasteroida
Life habit
semi-infaunalPBDB, for Clypeasteroida
Motility
slow-movingPBDB, for Clypeasteroida
Vision
limitedPBDB, for Echinoidea
Environment
marinePBDB, for Echinodermata

Time the record covers

At least 15 million years on record.

The record covers at least 15.98 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 20.45 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Miocene — about 3 of 20 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 6 of 20 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 11 of 20 occurrencesPleistocene21–20 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.6–4.9 Mya — about 1 occurrence4.9–4.2 Mya — about 2 occurrences4.2–3.5 Mya — about 2 occurrences3.5–2.8 Mya — about 2 occurrences2.8–2.1 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.1–1.4 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences1.4–698 ka Mya — about 0.8 occurrences698 ka–0 Mya — about 9 occurrences15.98 Mya129 ka20.9 Mya0 Mya

20 occurrences of Mellita 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

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

13 formations

Palos Verdes Sand — 33.60°N, 117.80°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.60°N, 117.88°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.80°N, 118.28°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.80°N, 118.17°WBaitoa — 19.35°N, 70.70°WYorktown — 37.06°N, 76.33°WYorktown — 36.86°N, 76.58°WTamiami — 26.13°N, 81.48°WNashua — 29.52°N, 81.67°WJackson Bluff — 30.39°N, 84.64°WAnastasia — 29.89°N, 81.29°WSatilla — 30.65°N, 81.79°WCanepatch — 33.83°N, 78.89°WGoose Creek — 33.33°N, 80.15°WCroatan — 35.36°N, 76.82°WSan Pedro — 33.80°N, 118.17°WPamlico — 32.69°N, 80.23°W

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The named rock units Mellita has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Mellita and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Mellita and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

869 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 18 sites for Mellita, 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

9 references

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 content2

Picture of Mellita

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Agassiz 1841