Pycnodonte

Searched as Pycnodonte (Phygraea) antiqua antiqua. The Paleobiology Database treats Pycnodonte as the accepted name.

Pycnodonte is a genus of extinct oysters, fossil marine bivalve mollusks in the family Gryphaeidae, the foam oysters or honeycomb oysters. Shells of species in this genus are found around the world in fossil shell beds from the Valanginian to the Early Pleistocene. They are a commonly found fossil in Cretaceous shellbeds of the Navesink Formation in New Jersey.

Pycnodonte

Wilson44691 · 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
PycnodonteinaePBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB
Life habit
epifaunalPBDB
Motility
stationary, attachedPBDB
Vision
blindPBDB, for Bivalvia
Environment
marine,brackishPBDB, for Ostreida

Time the record covers

At most 3.3 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 59.24 Mya and 56 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Paleocene — about 3 of 3 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 0 of 3 occurrences59–59 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences59–59 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences59–59 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences59–59 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences59–59 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences59–58 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences58–58 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences58–58 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences58–58 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences58–58 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences58–58 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences58–58 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences58–57 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences57–57 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences57–57 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences57–57 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences57–57 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences57–57 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences57–57 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences57–56 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences56–56 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences56–56 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences56–56 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences56–56 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences59.74 Mya55.5 Mya

3 occurrences of Pycnodonte on record, most of them in the Paleocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. 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

3 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.

Pycnodonte and its relatives

Paleocene

Where Pycnodonte and its relatives were recorded in the Paleocene.

Found in the same rock

1,290 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 826 sites for Pycnodonte, and this reads 240 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

1 reference

Each of the 3 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. Each entry links to the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Pycnodonte

Credit
Wilson44691
Licence
Public Domain
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 itPycnodonteinae through timeFormations of the PaleoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Fischer von Waldheim 1835)