Merriamaster perrini

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
- MerriamasterPBDB
- 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 most 4 million years on record.
Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 5.333 Mya and 1.4 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.
6 occurrences of Merriamaster perrini on record, most of them in the Pliocene. 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
6 occurrences- Pliocene88%
- Pleistocene12%
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
3 formations
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The named rock units Merriamaster perrini has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.
Merriamaster perrini and its relatives
PlioceneWhere Merriamaster perrini and its relatives were recorded in the Pliocene.
Found in the same rock
54 taxa- Anadara trilineata4 sites
- Oppenheimopecten coalingaensis4 sites
- Astrangia coalingensis3 sites
- Calliostoma kerri3 sites
- Chama arcana3 sites
- Dendostrea vespertina3 sites
- Argopecten circularis impostor2 sites
- Calliostoma coalingensis2 sites
- Camelidae2 sites
- Chlamys egregius2 sites
- Dallocardia quadragenarium2 sites
- Euspira lewisii2 sites
- Panopea generosa2 sites
- Swiftopecten parmeleei etchegoini2 sites
- Swiftopecten parmeleei parmaleei2 sites
- Terebratalia arnoldi etchegoini2 sites
- Balanus1 site
- Boreotrophon multicostatus1 site
- Caesia californiana1 site
- Califostoma turris1 site
- Callianax pedroana1 site
- Calyptraea filosa1 site
- Calyptraea inornata1 site
- Castor californicus1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 4 sites for Merriamaster perrini, 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
3 references- Geology and paleontology of the Santa Maria District California2
- Geology of the Kettleman Hills Oil Field, California, Stratigraphy, Paleontology and Structure2
- The Etchegoin Pliocene of middle California2
Each of the 6 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. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.
Media and terms
Media content1

Picture of Merriamaster perrini
- 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 Merriamaster perrini was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.
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 itMerriamaster through timeFormations of the PlioceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Weaver 1908)