Sphaerium corneum
Sphaerium corneum, also known as the horny orb mussel or European fingernail clam, is a very small freshwater clam, an aquatic bivalve mollusk in the family Sphaeriidae, the fingernail clams.

Francisco Welter Schultes · CC BY-SA 2.5 · 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
- SphaeriumPBDB
- Diet
- suspension feederPBDB, for Bivalvia
- Life habit
- infaunalPBDB, for Bivalvia
- Motility
- facultatively mobilePBDB, for Bivalvia
- Vision
- blindPBDB, for Bivalvia
- Environment
- freshwaterPBDB, for Sphaeriidae
Time the record covers
At least 645 thousand years on record.
The record covers at least 774 ka to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 2.58 Mya to 11.7 ka.
3 occurrences of Sphaerium corneum 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
3 occurrences- Pleistocene100%
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.
Sphaerium corneum and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Sphaerium corneum and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
63 taxa- Planorbis3 sites
- Cervus2 sites
- Equus2 sites
- Lymnaea2 sites
- Mimomys2 sites
- Abida sp.1 site
- Arianta arbustorum1 site
- Bovidae1 site
- Canis etruscus1 site
- Castor fiber1 site
- Cervus nestii1 site
- Clausilia1 site
- Columella columella1 site
- Copris lunaris1 site
- Crocuta1 site
- Croizetoceros ramosus1 site
- Culcita1 site
- Deperetia1 site
- Dicrostonyx1 site
- Divalinga1 site
- Donacia1 site
- Elater1 site
- Felis toscana1 site
- Gazellospira1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Sphaerium corneum, 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
3 references- Early Middle Pleistocene mammalian faunas from Karlich (Kaerlich) and Miesenheim I and their biostratigraphical implications1
- Weitere Fossilfunde aus dem altesten Pleistozan der Erpfinger Hohle (Schwabische Alp)1
- On the Boulder Formation or drift, and associated freshwater deposits composing the mid cliffs of eastern Norfolk1
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. 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 Sphaerium corneum
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Francisco Welter Schultes
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 2.5
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Sphaerium corneum 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.
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 itSphaerium through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Linnaeus 1767)