Oculina diffusa

Oculina diffusa, commonly known as the diffuse ivory bush coral or ivory tree coral, is found in the eastern Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea. It is found in shallow water, usually down to 3 metres (9.8 ft) deep but occasionally as deep as 20 metres (66 ft). Its colonies are dense and have a yellow-brown color. It favours areas with high amounts of sedimentation.

Oculina diffusa

NOAA · 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
OculinaPBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB, for Oculina
Life habit
colonial, clonalPBDB, for Faviina
Motility
stationary, attachedPBDB, for Oculinidae
Vision
blindPBDB, for Anthozoa
Environment
marinePBDB, for Scleractinia

Time the record covers

At least 2.5 million years on record.

The record covers at least 2.58 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 3.6 Mya to 0 Mya.

Pliocene — about 1 of 8 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 4 of 8 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 3 of 8 occurrences3.7–3.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.6–3.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.4–3.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.3–3.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.1–3.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.0–2.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.9–2.7 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.7–2.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.6–2.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.5–2.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.3–2.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.2–2.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.0–1.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.9–1.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.8–1.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.6–1.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.5–1.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.4–1.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.2–1.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.1–957 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences957 ka–820 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences820 ka–683 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences683 ka–547 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences547 ka–410 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences410 ka–273 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences273 ka–137 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences137 ka–0 Mya — about 4 occurrences2.58 Mya11.7 ka4.1 Mya0 Mya

8 occurrences of Oculina diffusa on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. 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

8 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

5 formations

Caloosahatchee — 26.73°N, 81.48°WBermont — 26.67°N, 80.68°WIronshore — 19.28°N, 81.33°WJackson Bluff — 30.38°N, 84.63°WMount Hope — 9.33°N, 79.90°W

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The named rock units Oculina diffusa has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 3 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Oculina diffusa and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Oculina diffusa and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

70 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Oculina diffusa, 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

6 references

Each of the 8 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 content1

Picture of Oculina diffusa

Credit
NOAA
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Oculina diffusa was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access was 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 itOculina through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Lamarck 1816