Mytilus edulis

The blue mussel, also known as the common mussel, is a medium-sized edible marine bivalve mollusc in the family Mytilidae, the only extant family in the order Mytilida, known as "true mussels". Blue mussels are subject to commercial use and intensive aquaculture. A species with a large range, the blue mussel leaves empty shells that are commonly found on beaches around the world.

Mytilus edulis

Rainer Zenz · 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
Also called
bay musselPBDB
Sits inside
MytilusPBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB, for Mytilus
Life habit
epifaunalPBDB, for Mytilus
Motility
stationary, attachedPBDB, for Mytilus
Vision
blindPBDB, for Bivalvia
Environment
lagoonal,coastal,inner shelf,outer shelf,oceanic,brackish,freshwaterPBDB, for Mytilidae

Time the record covers

At least 154 million years on record.

The record covers at least 154.8 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 161.5 Mya to 0 Mya.

Middle Jurassic — about 0 of 168 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 2 of 168 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 0 of 168 occurrencesLate Cretaceous — about 0 of 168 occurrencesPaleocene — about 0 of 168 occurrencesEocene — about 0 of 168 occurrencesOligocene — about 3 of 168 occurrencesMiocene — about 2 of 168 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 21 of 168 occurrencesPleistocene — about 104 of 168 occurrences165–159 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences159–154 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences154–148 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences148–143 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences38–33 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences33–27 Mya — about 1 occurrence27–22 Mya — about 2 occurrences22–16 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences16–11 Mya — about 1 occurrence5.5–0 Mya — about 161 occurrences154.8 Mya11.7 ka165 Mya0 Mya

168 occurrences of Mytilus edulis 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

168 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

35 formations

Norwich Crag — 52.58°N, 1.38°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°WLillo — 51.25°N, 4.28°EVistula — 53.94°N, 19.33°ERed Crag — 51.97°N, 1.35°ERed Crag — 51.85°N, 1.28°EWeybourne Crag — 52.90°N, 1.37°ELate Pleistocene terrace — 43.12°N, 124.41°WLate Pleistocene terrace — 46.37°N, 123.96°WGniew — 53.85°N, 19.17°EChamplain Clay — 43.68°N, 70.37°WChamplain Clay — 44.61°N, 67.93°WChamplain Clay — 45.50°N, 73.58°WChamplain Clay — 45.85°N, 71.18°WHookton — 40.98°N, 124.11°WOsmington Oolite — 50.80°N, 2.28°WGakkhinskaya — 58.25°N, 158.75°ELimimtevayamskaya — 58.97°N, 163.92°ETyushevskaya — 54.50°N, 161.37°EUst'-Limimtevayamskaya — 58.97°N, 163.92°EAcredale — 36.79°N, 76.17°WTomioka — 42.77°N, 143.02°EKadyny — 54.26°N, 19.45°ELecze — 54.18°N, 19.45°EBorskaya — 50.41°N, 143.74°ENutovskaya — 52.57°N, 143.23°EPomyrskaya — 54.16°N, 142.56°ESaanich — 47.58°N, 122.42°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Mytilus edulis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 11 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 104 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Mytilus edulis and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Mytilus edulis and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

1,109 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 82 sites for Mytilus edulis, 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

53 references

Each of the 168 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. 41 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 content2

Picture of Mytilus edulis

Credit
Rainer Zenz
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

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 itMytilus through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

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