Musculus niger

Musculus niger, or the black mussel, is a species of bivalve mollusc in the family Mytilidae. It can be found in the Atlantic Ocean, eastern Pacific Ocean, and the Arctic Ocean. Along the Atlantic coast of North America, it ranges from the Arctic Ocean to North Carolina.

Musculus niger

George Brown Goode · Public Domain · via Wikipedia/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
MusculusPBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB, for Musculus
Life habit
epifaunalPBDB, for Musculus
Motility
stationaryPBDB, for Musculus
Vision
blindPBDB, for Bivalvia

Time the record covers

At least 7.2 million years on record.

The record covers at least 7.246 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 15.98 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 4 of 16 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 3 of 16 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 7 of 16 occurrencesPleistocene16–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences14–14 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences10–9.9 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences9.9–9.3 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences9.3–8.8 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences8.8–8.2 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences8.2–7.7 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences7.7–7.1 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences5.5–4.9 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences4.9–4.4 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences4.4–3.8 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences3.8–3.3 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences3.3–2.7 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.7–2.2 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.2–1.6 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.6–1.1 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.1–549 ka Mya — about 1.0 occurrences549 ka–0 Mya — about 4 occurrences7.246 Mya11.7 ka16.5 Mya0 Mya

16 occurrences of Musculus niger 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

16 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

7 formations

Tachilni — 54.98°N, 162.85°WTachilni — 54.85°N, 163.41°WTachilni — 54.97°N, 163.17°WKap Kobenhavn — 82.38°N, 21.00°WKap Kobenhavn — 82.47°N, 21.00°WPresumpscot — 43.35°N, 70.50°WPresumpscot — 43.50°N, 70.44°WEnemtenskaya — 58.00°N, 158.00°ELimimtevayamskaya — 58.97°N, 163.92°EMysa Ploskogo — 58.75°N, 163.75°ENutovskaya — 52.57°N, 143.23°E

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The named rock units Musculus niger has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 4 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Musculus niger and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Musculus niger and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

120 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 10 sites for Musculus niger, 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

8 references

Each of the 16 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 Musculus niger

Credit
George Brown Goode
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Musculus niger · USNM:IZ:USNM 73779

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 itMusculus through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Gray 1824)