Leptopecten latiauratus
Leptopecten latiauratus, common name the kelp scallop, is a small saltwater clam, a bivalve mollusk in the family Pectinidae, the scallops. It lives in water up to 850 feet deep. Like other scallops it has many small primitive eyes around the rim of its mantle and escapes predators by jet propulsion.

Scott Andrew Snow · 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- Also called
- kelp scallopPBDB
- Sits inside
- LeptopectenPBDB
- Diet
- suspension feederPBDB, for Leptopecten
- Life habit
- epifaunalPBDB, for Leptopecten
- Motility
- facultatively mobilePBDB, for Leptopecten
- Vision
- limitedPBDB, for Pectinidae
- Environment
- marinePBDB, for Pectinida
Time the record covers
At least 15 million years on record.
The record covers at least 15.98 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 23.04 Mya to 11.7 ka.
78 occurrences of Leptopecten latiauratus 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
78 occurrences- Miocene3%
- Pliocene12%
- Pleistocene86%
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
12 formations
- Palos Verdes Sand Formation25
- San Pedro Sand Formation3
- Palos Verdes Formation3
- Tirabuzon Formation2
- San Pedro Formation2
- Pirabas Formation2
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The named rock units Leptopecten latiauratus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 34 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Leptopecten latiauratus and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Leptopecten latiauratus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
1,212 taxa- Callianax biplicata35 sites
- Cryptomya californica33 sites
- Dentalium neohexagonum31 sites
- Caesia perpinguis29 sites
- Californiconus californicus29 sites
- Caesia fossatus28 sites
- Donax (Donax) gouldii27 sites
- Lucinisca nuttalli27 sites
- Acteocina culcitella26 sites
- Glossaulax reclusiana26 sites
- Leukoma staminea26 sites
- Calliostoma canaliculatum25 sites
- Macoma nasuta25 sites
- Ostrea lurida25 sites
- Mitrella gausapata24 sites
- Saccella taphria24 sites
- Tivela (Pachydesma) stultorum24 sites
- Tagelus (Tagelus) californianus23 sites
- Tresus nuttallii23 sites
- Callianax pedroana22 sites
- Caryocorbula luteola22 sites
- Rexithaerus secta22 sites
- Thylacodes squamigerus22 sites
- Turritella cooperi22 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 63 sites for Leptopecten latiauratus, 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
33 references- The paleontology of the Pleistocene molluscan fauna of the Newport Bay area, California14
- The Paleontology and Stratigraphy of the Marine Pliocene and Pleistocene of San Pedro, California8
- Late Pleistocene invertebrates of the Newport Bay area, California5
- Expedition to the Revillagigedo Islands, Mexico, in 1925, VII. Contribution to the geology and paleontology of the Tertiary of Cedros Island and adjacent parts of Lower California5
- Late Pleistocene megafauna of Cayucos, California, and its zoogeographic significance4
- Pleistocene molluscan notes, II. faunule from Huntington Beach Mesa, Calif.3
- Paleontology and stratigraphy of some marine Pleistocene deposits in northwest Los Angeles Basin, California3
- Geology and Paleontology of Palos Verdes Hills, California3
- Paleontology of the Pleistocene of Point Loma, San Diego County, California3
- Localidades fossiliferas da Formacao Pirabas (Mioceno Inferior)2
- Paleoecologic analysis and age of a late Pleistocene fossil assemblage from Upper Newport Bay, Newport Beach, Orange County, California2
- Pectinidos del Plioceno del area de Santa Rosalia, Baja California sur2
Each of the 78 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. 21 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 Leptopecten latiauratus
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Scott Andrew Snow
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 3.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Leptopecten latiauratus 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 itLeptopecten through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Conrad 1837)