Mya
Searched as Mya (Arenomya) japonica oonogai. The Paleobiology Database treats Mya as the accepted name.
Mya is a genus of saltwater clams, marine bivalve molluscs in the family Myidae. They are widespread and abundant in northern waters. Commonly known as Ipswich clams, soft-shell clam or steamers, they are routinely used as a food source for humans.

Uncredited · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
- MyidaePBDB
- Diet
- suspension feederPBDB, for Myidae
- Life habit
- infaunalPBDB, for Myidae
- Motility
- facultatively mobilePBDB, for Myidae
- Vision
- blindPBDB, for Bivalvia
Time the record covers
At most 2.6 million years on record.
Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 2.58 Mya and 11.7 ka, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.
3 occurrences of Mya 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
3 occurrences- Pleistocene100%
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
1 formation
- Toshima Sand Formation · Toyohashi Group3
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The named rock units Mya has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.
Mya and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Mya and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
2,445 taxa- Hiatella arctica56 sites
- Macoma (Macoma) calcarea41 sites
- Mytilus edulis40 sites
- Macoma33 sites
- Serripes (Serripes) groenlandicus28 sites
- Turritella26 sites
- Cyclocardia24 sites
- Panopea24 sites
- Cryptonatica affinis22 sites
- Astarte21 sites
- Clinocardium (Ciliatocardium) ciliatum20 sites
- Diplodonta20 sites
- Spisula20 sites
- Buccinum undatum19 sites
- Thracia19 sites
- Natica18 sites
- Buccinum17 sites
- Yoldia17 sites
- Balanus16 sites
- Chlamys (Chlamys) islandica16 sites
- Glycymeris16 sites
- Tellina16 sites
- Aequipecten opercularis15 sites
- Anadara15 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 228 sites for Mya, 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
1 referenceEach of the 3 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 the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.
Media and terms
Media content1
Picture of Mya
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- nobody named on the record
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 3.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No repository was searched for a 3D scan: the genus name is too short to search on without matching most of the record.
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 itMyidae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Linnaeus 1758