Talpaspongia clavata

via GBIF · CC0 · via GBIF. 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
- TalpaspongiaPBDB
- Diet
- suspension feederPBDB, for Porifera
- Life habit
- intermediate-level epifaunalPBDB, for Heteractinida
- Motility
- stationaryPBDB, for Heteractinida
- Vision
- blindPBDB, for Heteractinida
- Environment
- marinePBDB, for Heteractinida
Time the record covers
At least 40 million years on record.
The record covers at least 323.6 Mya to 283.3 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 326.9 Mya to 274.4 Mya.
5 occurrences of Talpaspongia clavata on record, most of them in the Carboniferous. 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
5 occurrences- Carboniferous80%
- Permian20%
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
4 formations
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The named rock units Talpaspongia clavata has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.
Talpaspongia clavata and its relatives
CarboniferousWhere Talpaspongia clavata and its relatives were recorded in the Carboniferous.
Found in the same rock
43 taxa- Wewokella solida3 sites
- Archimedes2 sites
- Regispongia contorta2 sites
- Allorynchus sp.1 site
- Anthracospirifer1 site
- Antiquatonia1 site
- Apatognathus1 site
- Bellerophontoidea1 site
- Calamites1 site
- Cardiomorpha1 site
- Cavusgnathus1 site
- Diaphragmus1 site
- Diphyphyllum1 site
- Faberophyllum1 site
- Fenestella1 site
- Girtyspira1 site
- Glaphyrites nevadensis1 site
- Gnathodus texanus1 site
- Idioprioniodus1 site
- Inflatia1 site
- Lepidodendron1 site
- Lepidophylloides1 site
- Lochriea commutata1 site
- Orthotetes1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 5 sites for Talpaspongia clavata, 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- Some Mississippian and Pennsylvanian sponges from Utah3
- New materials of Permian sponges1
- Biostratigraphy of the Great Blue Formation1
Each of the 5 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 content1

Picture of Talpaspongia clavata
- Source
- GBIF
- Credit
- via GBIF
- Licence
- CC0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Talpaspongia clavata was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.
Smithsonian Open Access was 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 itTalpaspongia through timeFormations of the CarboniferousThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. King 1943