Spisula

Spisula is a genus of medium-sized to large marine bivalve mollusks or clams in the subfamily Mactrinae of the family Mactridae, commonly known as surf clams or trough shells.

Spisula

Philippe MAESTRATI · CC BY 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
MactrinaePBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB
Life habit
infaunalPBDB
Motility
facultatively mobilePBDB
Vision
blindPBDB, for Bivalvia

Time the record covers

At least 59 million years on record.

The record covers at least 59.24 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 66 Mya to 0 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 0 of 576 occurrencesPaleocene — about 2 of 576 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 163 of 576 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 55 of 576 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 140 of 576 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 74 of 576 occurrencesPleistocene — about 132 of 576 occurrences67–65 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences65–63 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences63–61 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences61–58 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences58–56 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences56–54 Mya — about 5 occurrences54–52 Mya — about 5 occurrences52–49 Mya — about 5 occurrences49–47 Mya — about 11 occurrences47–45 Mya — about 18 occurrences45–43 Mya — about 18 occurrences43–40 Mya — about 26 occurrences40–38 Mya — about 46 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 17 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 10 occurrences34–31 Mya — about 11 occurrences31–29 Mya — about 11 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 11 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 12 occurrences25–22 Mya — about 11 occurrences22–20 Mya — about 8 occurrences20–18 Mya — about 15 occurrences18–16 Mya — about 15 occurrences16–13 Mya — about 20 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 45 occurrences11–9.0 Mya — about 13 occurrences9.0–6.7 Mya — about 13 occurrences6.7–4.5 Mya — about 24 occurrences4.5–2.2 Mya — about 74 occurrences2.2–0 Mya — about 127 occurrences59.24 Mya11.7 ka67 Mya0 Mya

576 occurrences of Spisula on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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

576 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

134 formations

Moodys Branch — 32.85°N, 90.41°WMoodys Branch — 32.95°N, 90.17°WMoodys Branch — 32.23°N, 92.15°WMoodys Branch — 32.01°N, 92.00°WMoodys Branch — 32.33°N, 90.15°WMoodys Branch — 31.88°N, 88.69°WMoodys Branch — 31.88°N, 88.32°WMoodys Branch — 31.61°N, 85.05°WMoodys Branch — 31.67°N, 92.89°WMoodys Branch — 35.01°N, 90.79°WMoodys Branch — 31.97°N, 88.53°WMoodys Branch — 32.17°N, 88.83°WMoodys Branch — 31.54°N, 88.06°WMoodys Branch — 32.98°N, 90.30°WChoptank — 38.39°N, 76.57°WChoptank — 38.41°N, 76.48°WChoptank — 38.38°N, 76.38°WChoptank — 38.52°N, 76.51°WShoal River — 30.72°N, 86.12°WShoal River — 30.65°N, 86.04°WShoal River — 30.63°N, 86.17°WShoal River — 30.69°N, 86.65°WNorwich Crag — 52.58°N, 1.38°EGosport Sand — 31.52°N, 87.90°WGosport Sand — 31.54°N, 87.52°WGosport Sand — 31.50°N, 87.80°WGosport Sand — 31.53°N, 87.57°WOak Grove — 30.90°N, 84.58°WOak Grove — 30.92°N, 86.57°WOak Grove — 30.97°N, 86.46°WOak Grove — 30.87°N, 86.52°WLillo — 51.25°N, 4.28°ELisbon — 31.53°N, 87.60°WLisbon — 31.84°N, 88.25°WLisbon — 31.50°N, 87.80°WLisbon — 31.30°N, 86.48°WLisbon — 31.54°N, 87.52°WStepovak — 55.46°N, 160.98°WStepovak — 55.26°N, 160.70°WStepovak — 55.65°N, 160.27°WStepovak — 55.66°N, 160.23°WStepovak — 55.64°N, 159.67°WYorktown — 37.23°N, 76.96°WYorktown — 35.51°N, 77.62°WYorktown — 37.23°N, 76.51°WYorktown — 34.90°N, 78.05°WYorktown — 37.06°N, 76.63°WYorktown — 35.15°N, 77.14°WBerada — 51.10°N, 5.80°ETallahatta — 31.30°N, 86.48°WTallahatta — 31.30°N, 86.55°WMint Spring — 32.27°N, 89.99°WMint Spring — 32.17°N, 90.18°WMint Spring — 32.36°N, 90.87°WMint Spring — 32.47°N, 90.84°WByram — 32.01°N, 89.38°WByram — 32.18°N, 90.25°WByram — 32.41°N, 90.84°WRed Crag — 51.87°N, 1.29°ERed Crag — 51.97°N, 1.35°ERed Crag — 51.85°N, 1.28°ERed Crag — 52.75°N, 1.53°EWaccamaw — 34.33°N, 78.20°WWaccamaw — 34.21°N, 81.31°WWaccamaw — 33.97°N, 78.39°WWaccamaw — 34.17°N, 78.60°WPamlico — 32.78°N, 79.90°WPamlico — 35.70°N, 75.74°WPamlico — 35.50°N, 76.27°WPamlico — 35.25°N, 76.57°WPamlico — 35.59°N, 76.23°WPamlico — 36.33°N, 76.17°WPamlico — 33.56°N, 79.08°WTachilni — 54.98°N, 162.85°WTachilni — 54.98°N, 164.65°WTachilni — 54.79°N, 163.36°WTachilni — 54.95°N, 163.05°WHatchetigbee Bluff — 32.08°N, 88.22°WHatchetigbee Bluff — 32.37°N, 88.68°WHatchetigbee Bluff — 31.46°N, 85.64°WHatchetigbee Bluff — 31.53°N, 87.32°WMcBean — 33.32°N, 81.64°WMcBean — 33.60°N, 80.65°WMcBean — 33.56°N, 80.09°WMcBean — 33.49°N, 80.86°WNanjemoy — 37.52°N, 76.79°WEastover — 37.22°N, 76.93°WEastover — 37.10°N, 76.39°WEastover — 37.79°N, 76.72°WEastover — 37.82°N, 76.75°WEastover — 38.17°N, 76.80°WCook Mountain — 31.29°N, 86.56°WCook Mountain — 31.31°N, 86.48°WCook Mountain — 32.10°N, 88.86°WCook Mountain — 32.36°N, 92.98°WCook Mountain — 30.64°N, 96.52°WClallam — 48.23°N, 124.14°WClallam — 48.27°N, 122.25°W

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The named rock units Spisula has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 110 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 93 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Spisula and its relatives

Eocene

Where Spisula and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

3,025 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 344 sites for Spisula, and this reads 240 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

135 references

Each of the 576 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. 123 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 Spisula

Credit
Philippe MAESTRATI
Licence
CC BY 4.0
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
Spisula solidissima · USNM:IZ:USNM 37020

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 itMactrinae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Gray 1837)