Patella

Patella is a genus of herbivorous marine sea snails, commonly known as limpets, in the family Patellidae within the class Gastropoda. Primarily a marine group of prosobranch gastropods, they typically live on tidal shores in non-tropical climates. As limpets in the family Patellidae, they are a sister group to the other three accepted genera: Cymbula, Helcion, and Scutellastra. Members of the genus Patella are characterized by a cup-shaped shell and gills, and move by means of muscular waves along their

A picture published with the record for Patella.

Tango22 · 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
PatellinaePBDB
Diet
grazerPBDB, for Patellidae
Life habit
epifaunalPBDB, for Patellidae
Motility
facultatively mobilePBDB, for Patellidae
Vision
limitedPBDB, for Gastropoda
Environment
marine,brackishPBDB, for Patellidae

Time the record covers

At least 283 million years on record.

The record covers at least 283.3 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 290.1 Mya to 0 Mya.

Permian — about 3 of 210 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 0 of 210 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 6 of 210 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 15 of 210 occurrencesLate TriassicEarly Jurassic — about 5 of 210 occurrencesEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 2 of 210 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 4 of 210 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 5 of 210 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 12 of 210 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 9 of 210 occurrencesEocene — about 9 of 210 occurrencesOligocene — about 1 of 210 occurrencesMiocene — about 15 of 210 occurrencesPliocene — about 18 of 210 occurrencesPleistocene — about 100 of 210 occurrences296–286 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences286–276 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences266–256 Mya — about 2 occurrences256–247 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences247–237 Mya — about 6 occurrences237–227 Mya — about 13 occurrences227–217 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences217–207 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences207–197 Mya — about 1 occurrence197–187 Mya — about 1 occurrence187–178 Mya — about 2 occurrences178–168 Mya — about 2 occurrences168–158 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences158–148 Mya — about 4 occurrences148–138 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences128–118 Mya — about 1 occurrence118–108 Mya — about 4 occurrences99–89 Mya — about 1 occurrence89–79 Mya — about 4 occurrences79–69 Mya — about 5 occurrences69–59 Mya — about 9 occurrences59–49 Mya — about 2 occurrences49–39 Mya — about 6 occurrences39–30 Mya — about 3 occurrences30–20 Mya — about 2 occurrences20–9.9 Mya — about 11 occurrences9.9–0 Mya — about 127 occurrences283.3 Mya11.7 ka296 Mya0 Mya

210 occurrences of Patella 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

210 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

38 formations

Fels — 48.50°N, 15.76°ECassian — 46.57°N, 11.94°ECassian — 46.55°N, 11.93°EAgatdal — 70.60°N, 53.05°WAgatdal — 70.60°N, 53.10°WBredasdorp — 33.88°S, 18.45°EKrasnoyarka — 48.68°N, 142.66°EKrasnoyarka — 47.37°N, 142.50°EVarswater — 32.98°S, 18.15°EHosselkus — 40.93°N, 122.13°WHosselkus — 40.78°N, 122.22°WLellinge Greensand — 55.71°N, 12.60°EAhlen — 51.80°N, 7.95°EHiraiga — 39.82°N, 141.99°EHiraiga — 39.82°N, 141.88°EMarmolata — 46.46°N, 11.85°EWeiyuanjiang — 23.93°N, 101.43°ETermofourà — 45.05°N, 7.80°ECephalopod Limestone — 10.30°S, 123.71°ECephalopod Limestone — 9.83°S, 124.57°EMungo River — 4.53°N, 9.51°ECabrillo — 32.68°N, 117.24°WMarshalltown — 39.55°N, 75.70°WCalcaire de Vigny — 49.07°N, 1.92°ECalcaire de Mons — 50.45°N, 3.93°EBabica Beds — 49.92°N, 21.90°ECalcaire de Caen — 48.97°N, 0.13°WPoint Allen — 36.00°S, 137.17°EApostoli — 35.25°N, 24.58°EKourtes — 35.20°N, 25.10°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Patella has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 14 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 144 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Patella and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Patella and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

2,694 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 91 sites for Patella, and this reads all 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

82 references

Each of the 210 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. 70 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 Patella

Credit
Tango22
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
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
Patella rustica · NHMUK:zoo:20240100

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 itPatellinae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

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