Chione californiensis
Chione californiensis, common name the California venus, is a species of medium-sized edible saltwater clam, a marine bivalve mollusc in the family Veneridae, the venus clams.

iNaturalist user: kwalks146 · 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- Also called
- banded chionePBDB
- Sits inside
- ChionePBDB
- Diet
- suspension feederPBDB, for Chione
- Life habit
- infaunalPBDB, for Chione
- Motility
- facultatively mobilePBDB, for Chione
- Vision
- blindPBDB, for Bivalvia
Time the record covers
At least 2.4 million years on record.
The record covers at least 2.58 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 5.333 Mya to 11.7 ka.
44 occurrences of Chione californiensis on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. 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
44 occurrences- Pliocene7%
- Pleistocene93%
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
8 formations
- Palos Verdes Sand Formation6
- Mulege Formation2
- Palos Verdes Formation2
- Salada Formation1
- Wildcat Formation1
- Bay Point Formation1
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The named rock units Chione californiensis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 29 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Chione californiensis and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Chione californiensis and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
982 taxa- Argopecten ventricosus23 sites
- Glossaulax reclusiana19 sites
- Lucinisca nuttalli18 sites
- Mexicardia procera17 sites
- Anomia peruviana15 sites
- Callianax biplicata14 sites
- Donax (Donax) gouldii14 sites
- Leukoma staminea14 sites
- Tagelus (Tagelus) californianus14 sites
- Californiconus californicus13 sites
- Cerithideopsis californica13 sites
- Crucibulum spinosum13 sites
- Fissurella volcano13 sites
- Chionopsis gnidia12 sites
- Diplodonta (Felaniella) sericata12 sites
- Leptopecten latiauratus12 sites
- Littorina (Littorina) scutulata12 sites
- Macoma nasuta12 sites
- Phrontis tegula12 sites
- Tivela (Pachydesma) stultorum12 sites
- Cryptomya californica11 sites
- Dentalium neohexagonum11 sites
- Epilucina californica11 sites
- Megastraea undosa11 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 34 sites for Chione californiensis, 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
20 references- Marine Pleistocene Invertebrates from near Puerto Penasco, Sonora, Mexico7
- Neotectonics and taphonomy; Pleistocene molluscan shell accumulations in the northern Gulf of California6
- Paleoecologic analysis and age of a late Pleistocene fossil assemblage from Upper Newport Bay, Newport Beach, Orange County, California4
- Notes on the marine Pleistocene deposits of San Diego County, California4
- Late Pleistocene invertebrates of the Newport Bay area, California3
- The Paleontology and Stratigraphy of the Marine Pliocene and Pleistocene of San Pedro, California3
- Upper Pleistocene Rocky Shores and Intertidal Biotas at Playa La Palmita (Baja California Sur,Mexico)2
- Paleontology of the Pleistocene of Point Loma, San Diego County, California2
- Catalogue of the Marine Pliocene and Pleistocene Mollusca of California2
- New information on molluscan paleontology and depositional environments of the Upper Pliocene Pico Formation, Valencia area, Los Angeles County, southern California1
- Paleoecology and paleoenvironments of the Pleistocene deposits of Bahia la Choya (Gulf of California, Sonora, Mexico)1
- Pleistocene mollusks from Tecolote Creek, San Diego, California1
Each of the 44 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. 8 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 Chione californiensis
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- iNaturalist user: kwalks146
- Licence
- CC BY 4.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Chione californiensis 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 itChione through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Broderip and Sowerby I 1835)