Anomalodesmata
Anomalodesmata is an superorder of saltwater clams, marine bivalve molluscs. This grouping was formerly recognised as a taxonomic subclass. It is called a superorder in the current World Register of Marine Species, despite having no orders, to parallel it with sister taxon Imparidentia, which does have orders.

William Wood (1774-1857) · Public Domain · 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
- EuheterodontaPBDB
- Diet
- suspension feederPBDB, for Bivalvia
- Life habit
- infaunalPBDB, for Bivalvia
- Motility
- facultatively mobilePBDB, for Bivalvia
- Vision
- blindPBDB, for Bivalvia
Time the record covers
At least 233 million years on record.
The record covers at least 382.31 Mya to 149.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 393.47 Mya to 145.06 Mya.
18 occurrences of Anomalodesmata on record, most of them in the Late Jurassic. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. 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
18 occurrencesThese 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
6 formations
- Kap Leslie Formation8
- Cerros de Cuevitas Formation4
- Cerro El Arbol Formation2
- Alcobaca Formation1
- Piauí Formation1
- Caerace Formation1
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The named rock units Anomalodesmata 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.
Anomalodesmata and its relatives
Late JurassicWhere Anomalodesmata and its relatives were recorded in the Late Jurassic.
Found in the same rock
177 taxa- Arctica8 sites
- Camptonectes (Boreionectes) broenlundi8 sites
- Lopatinia7 sites
- Praebuchia6 sites
- Corbicellopsis5 sites
- Modiolus strajeskianus5 sites
- Liostrea4 sites
- Lucina lirata4 sites
- Myalina chilena4 sites
- Tancredia4 sites
- Unicardium4 sites
- Aguilerella3 sites
- Bivalvia3 sites
- Ditrupa3 sites
- Protocardia striatula3 sites
- Bryozoa2 sites
- Camptonectes2 sites
- Crinoidea2 sites
- Pinegopora chilensis2 sites
- Serpula2 sites
- Acratia1 site
- Acratia caeracella1 site
- Acratia goemoeryi1 site
- Acrochordiceras hyatti1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 17 sites for Anomalodesmata, 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
5 references- Unpublished data9
- Las sucesiones carbonáticas marinas del Pérmico Temprano en Antofagasta, norte de Chile6
- A highly diverse bivalve fauna from a Bithynian (Anisian, Middle Triassic) Tubiphytes‐microbial buildup in North Dobrogea (Romania)1
- Pennsylvanian Heteroconchia (Mollusca, Bivalvia) from the Piauí Formation, Parnaíba Basin, Brazil1
- Worm tube fossils from the Hollard Mound hydrocarbon-seep deposit, Middle Devonian, Morocco: Palaeozoic seep-related vestimentiferans?1
Each of the 18 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 Anomalodesmata
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- William Wood (1774-1857)
- Licence
- Public Domain
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.
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 itEuheterodonta through timeFormations of the Late JurassicThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Dall 1889)