Mytilus

Mytilus is a cosmopolitan genus of medium to large-sized edible, mainly saltwater mussels, marine bivalve molluscs in the family Mytilidae.

Mytilus

Wilson44691 at English Wikipedia · 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
MytilinaePBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB
Life habit
epifaunalPBDB
Motility
stationary, attachedPBDB
Vision
blindPBDB, for Bivalvia
Environment
lagoonal,coastal,inner shelf,outer shelf,oceanic,brackish,freshwaterPBDB, for Mytilidae

Time the record covers

At least 419 million years on record.

The record covers at least 419.62 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 426.7 Mya to 0 Mya.

Silurian — about 2 of 862 occurrencesDevonian — about 0 of 862 occurrencesCarboniferous — about 0 of 862 occurrencesPermian — about 5 of 862 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 3 of 862 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 13 of 862 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 57 of 862 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 20 of 862 occurrencesMiddle Jurassic — about 41 of 862 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 66 of 862 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 61 of 862 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 45 of 862 occurrencesPaleocene — about 13 of 862 occurrencesEocene — about 41 of 862 occurrencesOligocene — about 68 of 862 occurrencesMiocene — about 135 of 862 occurrencesPliocene — about 43 of 862 occurrencesPleistocene — about 206 of 862 occurrences435–421 Mya — about 1 occurrence421–406 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences290–276 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences276–261 Mya — about 4 occurrences261–247 Mya — about 5 occurrences247–232 Mya — about 24 occurrences232–218 Mya — about 15 occurrences218–203 Mya — about 21 occurrences203–189 Mya — about 28 occurrences189–174 Mya — about 3 occurrences174–160 Mya — about 46 occurrences160–145 Mya — about 60 occurrences145–131 Mya — about 26 occurrences131–116 Mya — about 22 occurrences116–102 Mya — about 12 occurrences102–87 Mya — about 10 occurrences87–73 Mya — about 17 occurrences73–58 Mya — about 30 occurrences58–44 Mya — about 15 occurrences44–29 Mya — about 53 occurrences29–15 Mya — about 128 occurrences15–0 Mya — about 342 occurrences419.62 Mya11.7 ka435 Mya0 Mya

862 occurrences of Mytilus 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

862 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

254 formations

Castilletes — 11.95°N, 71.32°WCastilletes — 11.93°N, 71.36°WCastilletes — 11.95°N, 71.29°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.99°N, 118.45°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.60°N, 117.88°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.74°N, 118.28°WUnnamed — 33.24°N, 119.47°WUnnamed — 33.24°N, 119.55°WBlakeley — 47.58°N, 122.48°WBlakeley — 47.53°N, 122.03°WBlakeley — 47.85°N, 122.10°WBlakeley — 47.57°N, 122.11°WBlakeley — 47.95°N, 122.07°WBlakeley — 47.10°N, 122.00°WAlcobaca — 39.32°N, 9.35°WAlcobaca — 38.42°N, 9.22°WAlcobaca — 39.52°N, 9.13°WChoptank — 38.41°N, 76.48°WChoptank — 38.38°N, 76.38°WChoptank — 38.52°N, 76.51°WChoptank — 38.39°N, 76.57°WNorwich Crag — 52.58°N, 1.38°ETrigonia clavellata — 50.60°N, 2.45°WTrigonia clavellata — 50.80°N, 2.28°WStuttgart — 49.20°N, 9.30°EClallam — 48.22°N, 124.10°WClallam — 48.27°N, 122.25°WKakertskaya — 62.50°N, 165.00°ESooke — 48.57°N, 124.60°WSooke — 48.38°N, 123.87°WSooke — 48.43°N, 124.09°WVistula — 54.28°N, 19.48°EVistula — 53.94°N, 19.33°EPresumpscot — 43.64°N, 70.26°WPresumpscot — 43.35°N, 70.50°WPresumpscot — 43.84°N, 70.10°WPresumpscot — 43.89°N, 70.28°WPresumpscot — 44.23°N, 69.78°WPresumpscot — 44.13°N, 68.87°WSan Emigdio — 35.06°N, 119.18°WLillo — 51.25°N, 4.28°EMoreno — 37.92°N, 121.79°WMoreno — 37.46°N, 121.19°WMoreno — 37.23°N, 121.12°WCalcaires marneux inferieurs — 49.83°N, 4.20°ECalcaires marneux inferieurs — 49.88°N, 4.09°ECalcaires marneux inferieurs — 49.70°N, 4.42°ECalcaires marneux inferieurs — 49.72°N, 4.50°ECalcaires marneux inferieurs — 49.64°N, 4.73°EKossen — 47.66°N, 12.45°EKossen — 47.55°N, 12.17°EKossen — 47.58°N, 12.57°EKazhdumi — 29.97°N, 52.90°EVuache — 46.83°N, 6.52°EMeshikuni — 45.33°N, 141.00°EBorskaya — 50.41°N, 143.74°ETemblor — 35.50°N, 119.78°WTemblor — 35.88°N, 120.10°WTemblor — 35.42°N, 119.84°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Mytilus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 230 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 331 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Mytilus and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Mytilus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

3,691 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 554 sites for Mytilus, and this reads 240 of them. Of that, one read hit the database's own return limit, so every count below is a floor rather than a total. 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

318 references

Each of the 862 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. 306 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 content3

Picture of Mytilus

Credit
Wilson44691 at English Wikipedia
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Photogrammetry

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
mytilus edulis · MST:PALEO:MST-SP-561

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC0 Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

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 itMytilinae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Linnaeus 1758)