Mesodesma

Mesodesma is a genus of saltwater clams, marine bivalve mollusks in the family Mesodesmatidae. It is the type genus of the family.

Mesodesma

Dick Culbert from Gibsons, B.C., Canada · CC BY 2.0 · 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
MesodesmatinaePBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB, for Mactroidea
Life habit
infaunalPBDB, for Mactroidea
Motility
facultatively mobilePBDB, for Mactroidea
Vision
blindPBDB, for Bivalvia

Time the record covers

At least 48 million years on record.

The record covers at least 48.07 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 0 Mya.

Paleocene — about 0 of 47 occurrencesEocene — about 3 of 47 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 47 occurrencesMiocene — about 1 of 47 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 4 of 47 occurrencesPleistocene — about 37 of 47 occurrences57–55 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences55–53 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences53–51 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences50–48 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences42–40 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences40–38 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences34–32 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences11–9.5 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences9.5–7.6 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences7.6–5.7 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences5.7–3.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.8–1.9 Mya — about 8 occurrences1.9–0 Mya — about 35 occurrences48.07 Mya11.7 ka57 Mya0 Mya

47 occurrences of Mesodesma 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

47 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

Pampa del Palo Terrace — 17.58°S, 71.17°WEstratos de Caldera — 27.05°S, 70.79°WEstratos de Caldera — 27.05°S, 70.79°WEstratos de Caldera — 27.22°S, 70.88°WEstratos de Caldera — 27.13°S, 70.92°WEstratos de Caldera — 27.33°S, 70.87°WEstratos de Caldera — 27.66°S, 70.85°WFormación Coquimbo — 30.01°S, 71.34°WFormación Coquimbo — 30.12°S, 71.31°WFormación Coquimbo — 30.24°S, 71.44°WTamala Limestone — 32.04°S, 115.76°EPresumpscot — 43.64°N, 70.26°WPresumpscot — 43.84°N, 70.10°WRed Crag — 51.85°N, 1.28°ERed Crag — 52.75°N, 1.53°EUmm al-Rua’us — 26.43°N, 50.11°EJackson — 26.27°N, 98.82°WPalembang — 2.92°S, 104.75°ELomas Terrace — 30.33°S, 74.75°WSan Juan Terrace — 15.33°S, 75.17°WHuacllaco — 15.90°S, 74.17°WRio Banano — 9.62°N, 82.83°W

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The named rock units Mesodesma has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 14 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Mesodesma and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Mesodesma and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

528 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 30 sites for Mesodesma, 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

20 references

Each of the 47 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. 8 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 content1

Picture of Mesodesma

Credit
Dick Culbert from Gibsons, B.C., Canada
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Mesodesma 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.

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 itMesodesmatinae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Deshayes