Thalassia testudinum

Thalassia testudinum, commonly known as turtlegrass, is a species of marine seagrass in the family Hydrocharitaceae. It forms meadows in shallow, sandy water in locations in the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. Turtle grass and other seagrasses form meadows which are important habitats and feeding grounds. The grass is eaten by turtles and herbivorous fish, supports many epiphytes, and provides habitat for juvenile fish and many invertebrate taxa.

Thalassia testudinum

James St. John · CC BY 2.0 · 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
ThalassiaPBDB
Diet
"photoautotroph"PBDB, for Angiospermae

Time the record covers

At least 37 million years on record.

The record covers at least 37.71 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 48.07 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Eocene — about 2 of 3 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 0 of 3 occurrencesMiocene — about 0 of 3 occurrencesPliocene — about 0 of 3 occurrencesPleistocene — about 1 of 3 occurrences49–47 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences47–46 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences46–44 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences44–42 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences41–39 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.6–0 Mya — about 1 occurrence37.71 Mya129 ka49 Mya0 Mya

3 occurrences of Thalassia testudinum on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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.

Found in

1 formation

Avon Park — 29.01°N, 82.65°W

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The named rock units Thalassia testudinum has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Thalassia testudinum and its relatives

Eocene

Where Thalassia testudinum and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

70 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Thalassia testudinum, 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

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 Thalassia testudinum

Credit
James St. John
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Thalassia testudinum 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 itThalassia through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Banks 1805