Psammocora

Psammocora is a genus of stony coral in the monotypic family Psammocoridae. Species of this genus are also known as cat's paw coral.

Psammocora

Philippe Bourjon · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
SiderastreidaePBDB
Diet
photosymbiotic, suspension feederPBDB, for Siderastreidae
Life habit
colonial, clonalPBDB, for Siderastreidae
Motility
stationary, attachedPBDB, for Scleractinia
Vision
blindPBDB, for Anthozoa
Environment
marinePBDB, for Scleractinia

Time the record covers

At least 37 million years on record.

The record covers at least 37.71 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 41.03 Mya to 0 Mya.

Eocene — about 1 of 68 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 1 of 68 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 15 of 68 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 2 of 68 occurrencesPleistocene — about 37 of 68 occurrences42–40 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences40–39 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences24–22 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 1 occurrence20–18 Mya — about 1 occurrence18–17 Mya — about 1 occurrence17–15 Mya — about 1 occurrence15–14 Mya — about 2 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 3 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 2 occurrences8.4–7.0 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences7.0–5.6 Mya — about 1 occurrence5.6–4.2 Mya — about 1 occurrence4.2–2.8 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences2.8–1.4 Mya — about 9 occurrences1.4–0 Mya — about 40 occurrences37.71 Mya11.7 ka41.9 Mya0 Mya

68 occurrences of Psammocora 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

68 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

11 formations

Tamana — 10.39°N, 61.29°WTamana — 10.22°N, 61.37°WTamana — 10.34°N, 61.43°WTamana — 10.33°N, 62.42°WTamana — 10.47°N, 61.22°WBoat Cove — 29.28°S, 177.85°WBoat Cove — 29.22°S, 177.83°WBoat Cove — 29.23°S, 177.88°WNuma — 34.97°N, 139.83°EValiente — 9.14°N, 81.94°WSables a Nummulites variolarius — 49.25°N, 2.50°EEra Beds — 8.35°S, 146.28°EPonce — 18.02°N, 66.63°WMiyako-jima — 24.80°N, 125.28°EDayrell — 29.23°S, 177.82°WMerizo — 13.23°N, 144.72°ETabera — 19.28°N, 70.70°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Psammocora has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 39 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Psammocora and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Psammocora and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

560 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 24 sites for Psammocora, 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

32 references

Each of the 68 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. 20 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 Psammocora

Credit
Philippe Bourjon
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC0 Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows 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 itSiderastreidae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Dana 1846