Ensis macha

Ensis macha, or navaja or navajuela as it is called in Spanish, is a bivalve mollusc of the family Pharidae. It inhabits the coasts of Peru, Chile and southern Argentina. It is different from the clam colloquially known as the macha in Peru and Chile.

Ensis macha

Mikelzubi · 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
EnsisPBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB, for Ensis
Life habit
infaunalPBDB, for Ensis
Motility
facultatively mobilePBDB, for Ensis
Vision
blindPBDB, for Bivalvia

Time the record covers

At least 2.5 million years on record.

The record covers at least 2.58 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 3.6 Mya to 0 Mya.

Pliocene — about 3 of 10 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 6 of 10 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 1 of 10 occurrences3.7–3.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.6–3.4 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.4–3.3 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.3–3.1 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.1–3.0 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.0–2.9 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.9–2.7 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.7–2.6 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.6–2.5 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.5–2.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.3–2.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.2–2.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.0–1.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.9–1.8 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.8–1.6 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.6–1.5 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.5–1.4 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.4–1.2 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.2–1.1 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.1–957 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences957 ka–820 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences820 ka–683 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences683 ka–547 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences547 ka–410 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences410 ka–273 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences273 ka–137 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences137 ka–0 Mya — about 4 occurrences2.58 Mya11.7 ka4.1 Mya0 Mya

10 occurrences of Ensis macha 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

10 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

7 formations

Pampa del Palo Terrace — 17.58°S, 71.17°WRed Crag — 51.85°N, 1.28°ERed Crag — 52.75°N, 1.53°ESan Juan Terrace — 15.33°S, 75.17°WTubul — 37.83°S, 73.33°WPongo — 15.53°S, 74.73°WCaracoles — 15.53°S, 74.74°WEstratos de Caldera — 27.05°S, 70.79°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Ensis macha 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.

Ensis macha and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Ensis macha and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

271 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 6 sites for Ensis macha, 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

6 references

Each of the 10 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 Ensis macha

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

No 3D scan of Ensis macha was found in Smithsonian Open Access and Sketchfab.

MorphoSource was 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 itEnsis through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Molina 1782)