Modiolus carpenteri

Soot-Ryen, 1963 · CC0 · 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- Also called
- California horsemusselPBDB
- Sits inside
- ModiolusPBDB
- Diet
- suspension feederPBDB, for Modiolus
- Life habit
- semi-infaunalPBDB, for Modiolus
- Motility
- stationary, attached, epibiontPBDB, for Modiolus
- Vision
- blindPBDB, for Bivalvia
- Environment
- lagoonal,coastal,inner shelf,outer shelf,oceanic,brackish,freshwaterPBDB, for Mytilidae
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 5.333 Mya to 0 Mya.
26 occurrences of Modiolus carpenteri 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
26 occurrences- Pliocene4%
- Pleistocene96%
- 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
- Timms Point Silt Formation6
- Unnamed Formation2
- Etchegoin Formation1
- Santa Barbara Formation1
- Palos Verdes Sand Formation1
- San Pedro Sand Formation1
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The named rock units Modiolus carpenteri 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.
Modiolus carpenteri and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Modiolus carpenteri and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
661 taxa- Californiconus californicus16 sites
- Callianax biplicata15 sites
- Alia carinata13 sites
- Diodora aspera13 sites
- Thylacodes squamigerus13 sites
- Amphissa versicolor12 sites
- Crepidula adunca12 sites
- Leukoma staminea12 sites
- Caesia fossatus11 sites
- Cryptomya californica11 sites
- Cumingia californica11 sites
- Homalopoma (Homalopoma) luridum11 sites
- Littorina (Littorina) scutulata11 sites
- Nutricola tantilla11 sites
- Acanthinucella spirata10 sites
- Caesia perpinguis10 sites
- Crepipatella lingulata10 sites
- Epilucina californica10 sites
- Glans carpenteri10 sites
- Petricola (Petricola) carditoides10 sites
- Acmaea mitra9 sites
- Chama arcana9 sites
- Chlorostoma funebrale9 sites
- Crassadoma gigantea9 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 18 sites for Modiolus carpenteri, 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
14 references- The cool-water Timms Point Pleistocene horizon at San Pedro, California5
- Late Pleistocene faunas from the northwestern coast of Baja California, Mexico3
- A Pleistocene invertebrate fauna from the southwest corner of San Diego County, California3
- Geology of San Nicolas Island, California2
- Late Pleistocene Invertebrates from Punta Cabras, Baja California, Mexico2
- Pleistocene invertebrates from Punta China, Baja California, Mexico, with remarks on the composition of the Pacific coast Quaternary faunas2
- The Paleontology and Stratigraphy of the Marine Pliocene and Pleistocene of San Pedro, California2
- Unpublished taxonomic backbone for Eastern Pacific Invertebrate Communities of the Cenozoic (EPICC) Thematic Collections Network1
- Paleoecologic analysis and age of a late Pleistocene fossil assemblage from Upper Newport Bay, Newport Beach, Orange County, California1
- Pleistocene invertebrates from the Dume Terrace, western Santa Monica Mountains, California1
- Pleistocene invertebrates from Punta Baja, Baja California, Mexico1
- Upper Pleistocene Mollusca from Potrero Canyon, Pacific Palisades, California1
Each of the 26 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. 2 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 Modiolus carpenteri
- Source
- Wikidata/Commons
- Credit
- Soot-Ryen, 1963
- Licence
- CC0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.
This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.
Keep going
What may have been alongside itModiolus through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Soot-Ryen 1963)