Donax fossor

Donax fossor is a species of small saltwater clam, a marine bivalve mollusc species in the family Donacidae. This species is native to the eastern coast of the US, as far north as New York State; in the past it was sometimes incorrectly considered to be a northern, less colorful form of Donax variabilis.

Donax fossor

Invertzoo · CC BY-SA 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
Sits inside
DonaxPBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB, for Donax
Life habit
infaunalPBDB, for Donax
Motility
facultatively mobilePBDB, for Donax
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.

Miocene — about 0 of 24 occurrencesPliocene — about 5 of 24 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 19 of 24 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 24 occurrences5.4–5.3 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.3–5.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.1–4.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.9–4.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.7–4.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.5–4.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.3–4.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.1–3.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.9–3.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.7–3.5 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences3.5–3.3 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences3.3–3.1 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences3.1–2.9 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences2.9–2.7 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences2.7–2.5 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences2.5–2.3 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.3–2.1 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.1–1.9 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.9–1.8 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.8–1.6 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.6–1.4 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.4–1.2 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.2–972 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence972 ka–778 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence778 ka–583 ka Mya — about 0.5 occurrences583 ka–389 ka Mya — about 0.5 occurrences389 ka–194 ka Mya — about 0.5 occurrences194 ka–0 Mya — about 6 occurrences2.58 Mya129 ka5.8 Mya0 Mya

24 occurrences of Donax fossor 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

24 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

8 formations

Waccamaw — 34.50°N, 79.11°WWaccamaw — 34.56°N, 78.49°WWaccamaw — 34.33°N, 78.20°WWaccamaw — 34.29°N, 78.51°WWaccamaw — 33.63°N, 79.16°WPamlico — 32.69°N, 80.23°WPamlico — 35.50°N, 76.27°WPamlico — 32.78°N, 79.93°WPamlico — 35.59°N, 76.23°WChowan RIver — 35.28°N, 76.65°WDuplin — 34.90°N, 78.05°WDuplin — 34.50°N, 79.11°WJames City — 35.28°N, 76.65°WHorry Clay — 33.69°N, 78.89°WTamiami — 25.74°N, 80.85°WCaloosahatchee — 27.77°N, 82.68°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Donax fossor has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 6 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Donax fossor and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Donax fossor and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

659 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 13 sites for Donax fossor, 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

7 references

Each of the 24 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 Donax fossor

Credit
Invertzoo
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Donax fossor 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 itDonax through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Say 1822