Septifer bifurcatus

Conrad, 1837 · CC0 · via Wikidata/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
- bifurcate musselPBDB
- Sits inside
- SeptiferPBDB
- Diet
- suspension feederPBDB, for Septifer
- Life habit
- epifaunalPBDB, for Septifer
- Motility
- stationary, attachedPBDB, for Septifer
- Vision
- blindPBDB, for Bivalvia
- Environment
- lagoonal,coastal,inner shelf,outer shelf,oceanic,brackish,freshwaterPBDB, for Mytilidae
Time the record covers
At least 2.4 million years on record.
The record covers at least 2.58 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 3.6 Mya to 0 Mya.
37 occurrences of Septifer bifurcatus 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
37 occurrences- Pliocene3%
- Pleistocene97%
- Holoceneunder 1%
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
6 formations
- Unnamed Formation4
- Quaternary terrace Formation3
- San Pedro Sand Formation2
- Palos Verdes Sand Formation2
- Palos Verdes Formation1
- San Diego Formation1
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The named rock units Septifer bifurcatus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 24 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Septifer bifurcatus and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Septifer bifurcatus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
886 taxa- Callianax biplicata25 sites
- Californiconus californicus24 sites
- Fissurella volcano24 sites
- Epilucina californica23 sites
- Littorina (Littorina) scutulata23 sites
- Thylacodes squamigerus23 sites
- Chlorostoma funebrale21 sites
- Glans carpenteri21 sites
- Leukoma staminea21 sites
- Lottia insessa20 sites
- Diodora aspera19 sites
- Hipponix tumens18 sites
- Mytilus californianus18 sites
- Homalopoma (Homalopoma) luridum17 sites
- Lottia limatula17 sites
- Lottia scabra17 sites
- Mexacanthina lugubris17 sites
- Alia carinata16 sites
- Haliotis cracherodii16 sites
- Crepidula adunca15 sites
- Norrisia norrisii15 sites
- Petricola (Petricola) carditoides15 sites
- Antisabia panamensis14 sites
- Chama exogyra14 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 29 sites for Septifer bifurcatus, 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
18 references- Paleontology of the Pleistocene of Point Loma, San Diego County, California6
- Late Pleistocene molluscan faunas from upper terraces of the Palos Verdes Hills, California5
- Late Pleistocene faunas from the northwestern coast of Baja California, Mexico5
- Geology of San Nicolas Island, California4
- Habitats and Sources of Pleistocene Mollusks at Torrey Pines Park, California2
- Late Pleistocene invertebrates of the Newport Bay area, California2
- Notes on the marine Pleistocene deposits of San Diego County, California2
- Paleoecologic analysis and age of a late Pleistocene fossil assemblage from Upper Newport Bay, Newport Beach, Orange County, California1
- The Geology and Paleontology of the Marine Pliocene of San Diego, California (Paleontology: Pelecypoda)1
- Late Pleistocene Invertebrates from Punta Cabras, Baja California, Mexico1
- Pleistocene mollusks from Tecolote Creek, San Diego, California1
- Pleistocene invertebrates from Punta China, Baja California, Mexico, with remarks on the composition of the Pacific coast Quaternary faunas1
Each of the 37 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. 6 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 content1

Picture of Septifer bifurcatus
- Source
- Wikidata/Commons
- Credit
- Conrad, 1837
- Licence
- CC0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Septifer bifurcatus was found in Sketchfab.
Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.
This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.
Keep going
What may have been alongside itSeptifer through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Conrad 1837)