Ampullariidae

Ampullariidae, is a family of large freshwater snails that includes the mystery snail species. They present an operculum and simultaneously have a gill and a lung as respiratory structures, which are separated by a division of the mantle cavity. This adaptation allows these animals to be amphibious. Species in this family are considered gonochoristic, meaning that each individual is either male or female.

Ampullariidae

Stijn Ghesquiere · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
Also called
apple snailPBDB
Sits inside
AmpullarioideaPBDB
Diet
grazerPBDB
Life habit
epifaunalPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB
Vision
limitedPBDB, for Gastropoda
Environment
freshwaterPBDB

Time the record covers

At least 201 million years on record.

The record covers at least 201.4 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 205.7 Mya to 0 Mya.

Late Triassic — about 1 of 157 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 1 of 157 occurrencesEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 10 of 157 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 4 of 157 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 4 of 157 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 6 of 157 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 1 of 157 occurrencesEocene — about 7 of 157 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 9 of 157 occurrencesMiocene — about 67 of 157 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 22 of 157 occurrencesPleistocene — about 15 of 157 occurrences210–203 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences203–196 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences196–189 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences175–168 Mya — about 1 occurrence168–161 Mya — about 9 occurrences161–154 Mya — about 2 occurrences154–147 Mya — about 2 occurrences147–140 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences140–133 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences133–126 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences126–119 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences119–112 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences112–105 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences105–98 Mya — about 3 occurrences98–91 Mya — about 2 occurrences84–77 Mya — about 1 occurrence77–70 Mya — about 1 occurrence70–63 Mya — about 1 occurrence63–56 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences56–49 Mya — about 3 occurrences49–42 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences42–35 Mya — about 3 occurrences35–28 Mya — about 9 occurrences28–21 Mya — about 7 occurrences21–14 Mya — about 26 occurrences14–7.0 Mya — about 27 occurrences7.0–0 Mya — about 54 occurrences201.4 Mya11.7 ka210 Mya0 Mya

157 occurrences of Ampullariidae on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

157 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

36 formations

Nkondo — 1.50°N, 31.00°EAshawq — 17.00°N, 54.00°EWembere-Manonga — 3.88°S, 33.72°EWembere-Manonga — 3.92°S, 33.82°EWembere-Manonga — 3.92°S, 33.87°EWembere-Manonga — 3.09°S, 33.73°EWembere-Manonga — 3.98°S, 33.96°ENubia — 16.25°N, 33.75°ENyakabingo — 1.00°N, 30.50°ENyaburogo — 1.00°N, 30.50°EZalumah — 17.42°N, 54.00°EKuldana — 33.60°N, 71.90°EKuldana — 33.60°N, 71.51°EBlackdown Greensand — 52.63°N, 1.13°WBlackdown Greensand — 50.87°N, 3.29°WChiwondo — 10.17°S, 34.00°EChiwondo — 10.05°S, 33.96°EMaboko — 0.15°N, 34.62°ELothidok — 3.33°N, 35.75°EZohar — 30.93°N, 34.98°ESolimões — 10.94°S, 69.34°WSolimões — 6.50°S, 69.67°WAlcobaca — 38.42°N, 9.22°WNawata and Nachukui — 2.88°N, 36.07°EWarwire — 1.50°N, 31.00°ENkondo or Oluka — 1.50°N, 31.00°EOluka — 1.00°N, 30.50°EPindiro Shales — 9.31°S, 39.38°ECalcaire de Caen — 48.97°N, 0.13°WKieselkalk — 47.42°N, 9.90°EBranderfleck — 47.67°N, 12.17°ECorral de Enmedio — 31.13°N, 109.82°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Ampullariidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 12 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 33 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Ampullariidae and its relatives

Miocene

Where Ampullariidae and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

1,107 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 111 sites for Ampullariidae, 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

62 references

Each of the 157 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. 50 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 Ampullariidae

Credit
Stijn Ghesquiere
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Ampullariidae 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 itAmpullarioidea through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Gray 1824