Glossus

Glossus is a genus of marine bivalve molluscs in the family Glossidae. Only one species, the oxheart clam, is still extant, living in flat, muddy regions deep off the North Atlantic coastline of Europe.

Glossus

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
GlossidaePBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB, for Glossidae
Life habit
infaunalPBDB, for Glossidae
Motility
facultatively mobilePBDB, for Glossidae
Vision
blindPBDB, for Bivalvia

Time the record covers

At least 98 million years on record.

The record covers at least 100.5 Mya to 1.8 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 113.2 Mya to 774 ka.

Early Cretaceous — about 5 of 234 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 70 of 234 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 13 of 234 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 14 of 234 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 12 of 234 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 103 of 234 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 14 of 234 occurrencesPleistocene — about 3 of 234 occurrences115–112 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences112–108 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences108–104 Mya — about 2 occurrences104–100 Mya — about 4 occurrences100–96 Mya — about 12 occurrences96–92 Mya — about 8 occurrences92–89 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences85–81 Mya — about 3 occurrences81–77 Mya — about 4 occurrences77–73 Mya — about 4 occurrences73–69 Mya — about 18 occurrences69–65 Mya — about 19 occurrences65–62 Mya — about 6 occurrences62–58 Mya — about 5 occurrences58–54 Mya — about 1 occurrence54–50 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences50–46 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences46–42 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences42–38 Mya — about 2 occurrences38–35 Mya — about 8 occurrences35–31 Mya — about 5 occurrences31–27 Mya — about 4 occurrences27–23 Mya — about 5 occurrences23–19 Mya — about 6 occurrences19–15 Mya — about 14 occurrences15–12 Mya — about 59 occurrences12–7.7 Mya — about 14 occurrences7.7–3.8 Mya — about 17 occurrences3.8–0 Mya — about 10 occurrences100.5 Mya1.8 Mya115 Mya0 Mya

234 occurrences of Glossus on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

234 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

69 formations

Choptank — 38.53°N, 76.52°WChoptank — 38.39°N, 76.57°WChoptank — 38.41°N, 76.48°WChoptank — 38.38°N, 76.38°WNacatoch Sand — 32.10°N, 96.47°WNacatoch Sand — 32.59°N, 96.31°WNacatoch Sand — 33.14°N, 96.11°WCalvert — 38.54°N, 76.73°WCalvert — 39.20°N, 75.60°WCalvert — 38.60°N, 76.51°WCalvert — 38.53°N, 76.52°WCalvert — 38.42°N, 76.62°WCalvert — 38.17°N, 76.80°WCalvert — 38.67°N, 76.53°WEastover — 37.22°N, 76.93°WEastover — 37.66°N, 77.15°WEastover — 37.77°N, 77.27°WEastover — 37.17°N, 76.77°WEastover — 37.69°N, 76.97°WEastover — 37.60°N, 77.05°WGalala — 29.67°N, 34.50°EGalala — 30.38°N, 33.52°EGalala — 29.28°N, 34.72°EGalala — 29.63°N, 34.40°EWoodbine — 33.66°N, 96.45°WWoodbine — 31.95°N, 97.32°WWoodbine — 33.73°N, 96.77°WWoodbine — 33.87°N, 95.57°WYorktown — 37.22°N, 76.93°WYorktown — 36.44°N, 77.10°WYorktown — 37.17°N, 76.77°WYorktown — 37.23°N, 76.96°WYorktown — 37.15°N, 76.74°WYorktown — 37.06°N, 76.63°WProvidence — 31.89°N, 85.70°WProvidence — 31.84°N, 85.22°WProvidence — 31.73°N, 85.12°WSaint Marys — 38.17°N, 76.44°WSaint Marys — 37.69°N, 76.97°WSaint Marys — 37.86°N, 76.84°WFels — 48.51°N, 15.74°EFels — 48.51°N, 15.77°EBerchem — 51.29°N, 4.27°EBerchem — 51.20°N, 4.44°EHalal — 30.37°N, 34.45°EPorters Creek — 32.03°N, 87.45°WPorters Creek — 32.37°N, 88.03°WPorters Creek — 31.98°N, 87.28°WSevern — 38.80°N, 77.00°WSevern — 38.92°N, 76.85°WNeylandville Marl — 33.20°N, 96.61°WNeylandville Marl — 32.10°N, 96.47°WSt Marys — 38.16°N, 76.45°WSt Marys — 38.17°N, 76.44°WSt Marys — 38.27°N, 76.15°WDakhla — 25.50°N, 30.50°EDuwi — 30.05°N, 31.25°EDuwi — 25.73°N, 30.69°EPeedee — 33.83°N, 79.25°WPeedee — 33.86°N, 79.39°WLondon Clay — 51.08°N, 1.17°WLondon Clay — 51.23°N, 0.85°WVejle Fjord — 55.18°N, 11.88°EVejle Fjord — 56.00°N, 9.25°EFalun de Morigny — 48.45°N, 2.20°ELas Cahobas — 18.53°N, 72.29°WBearpaw — 49.36°N, 110.42°WBearpaw — 49.45°N, 112.83°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Glossus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 45 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 65 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Glossus and its relatives

Miocene

Where Glossus and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

3,152 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 192 sites for Glossus, and this reads all of them. Of that, one read hit the database's own return limit, so every count below is a floor rather than a total. 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

75 references

Each of the 234 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. 63 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 Glossus

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

No 3D scan of Glossus 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 itGlossidae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Poli 1795