Gigantostrea

Gigantostrea is an extinct genus of marine bivalve mollusks belonging to the family Gryphaeidae.

Gigantostrea

Hectonichus · 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
Sits inside
PycnodonteinaePBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB, for Gryphaeidae
Life habit
epifaunalPBDB, for Gryphaeidae
Motility
stationary, attachedPBDB, for Gryphaeidae
Vision
blindPBDB, for Bivalvia
Environment
marine,brackishPBDB, for Ostreida

Time the record covers

At least 47 million years on record.

The record covers at least 59.24 Mya to 11.63 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 61.66 Mya to 7.246 Mya.

Paleocene — about 1 of 72 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 58 of 72 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 6 of 72 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 7 of 72 occurrencesMiocene63–61 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences61–59 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences57–55 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences55–53 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences53–51 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences50–48 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences48–46 Mya — about 2 occurrences46–44 Mya — about 2 occurrences44–42 Mya — about 2 occurrences42–40 Mya — about 8 occurrences40–38 Mya — about 14 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 13 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 11 occurrences34–33 Mya — about 4 occurrences33–31 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences31–29 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 1 occurrence25–23 Mya — about 1 occurrence23–21 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences21–19 Mya — about 1 occurrence19–17 Mya — about 2 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 2 occurrences16–14 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences12–9.9 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences9.9–8.0 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences8.0–6.2 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences59.24 Mya11.63 Mya63 Mya6 Mya

72 occurrences of Gigantostrea on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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

72 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

25 formations

Castle Hayne — 34.64°N, 77.65°WCastle Hayne — 34.36°N, 77.90°WCastle Hayne — 34.66°N, 77.70°WCastle Hayne — 34.90°N, 78.05°WCastle Hayne — 35.38°N, 77.99°WCastle Hayne — 35.05°N, 77.75°WCastle Hayne — 35.01°N, 77.51°WCastle Hayne — 35.00°N, 77.00°WCastle Hayne — 34.23°N, 77.94°WMoodys Branch — 31.88°N, 88.32°WMoodys Branch — 31.77°N, 88.33°WMoodys Branch — 31.50°N, 87.80°WMoodys Branch — 32.33°N, 90.15°WMoodys Branch — 32.23°N, 92.15°WYazoo Clay — 31.65°N, 87.71°WYazoo Clay — 31.50°N, 87.80°WYazoo Clay — 31.25°N, 86.77°WChipola — 30.54°N, 84.91°WChipola — 30.06°N, 84.49°WChipola — 30.33°N, 82.76°WTapui Glauconitic Sandstone — 44.88°S, 170.77°ETapui Glauconitic Sandstone — 45.04°S, 170.76°ETapui Glauconitic Sandstone — 45.00°S, 170.56°ECrystal River Limestone — 31.25°N, 86.77°WCrystal River Limestone — 29.39°N, 82.45°WBarton Clay — 50.74°N, 1.69°WBarton Beds — 50.74°N, 1.69°WPungo River — 35.40°N, 76.80°WSantee Limestone — 33.41°N, 80.30°WSantee Limestone — 33.68°N, 80.77°WVic-Igualada — 41.90°N, 2.20°ESables a Nummulites variolarius — 49.25°N, 2.50°ETupelo Bay — 33.47°N, 80.49°WSelsey — 50.73°N, 0.78°WUpper Cyrena — 47.50°N, 19.08°EAshley — 32.96°N, 80.09°WWaikareka Volcanic — 44.64°S, 171.01°EBayshore — 27.03°N, 82.17°WHatchetigbee Bluff — 32.08°N, 88.22°WHatchetigbee — 31.36°N, 86.09°WMarne di Priabona — 45.50°N, 11.75°ELakhish — 31.91°N, 34.92°EGosport — 31.29°N, 86.55°WTuscahoma — 31.80°N, 87.42°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Gigantostrea has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. One further formation holds fewer occurrences and is not listed. 17 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Gigantostrea and its relatives

Eocene

Where Gigantostrea and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

1,648 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 69 sites for Gigantostrea, 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

26 references

Each of the 72 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. 14 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 Gigantostrea

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

No 3D scan of Gigantostrea 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 itPycnodonteinae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Sacco 1897)