Megabalanus californicus

Megabalanus californicus, the California barnacle, is a species of large barnacle in the family Balanidae. It is native to rocky coasts in the Eastern Pacific Ocean from North California to the Gulf of California.

Megabalanus californicus

Cricket Raspet · CC BY 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
Also called
California barnaclePBDB
Sits inside
MegabalanusPBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB, for Balanidae
Life habit
epifaunal, gregariousPBDB, for Balanidae
Motility
stationary, attached, epibiontPBDB, for Balanidae
Vision
limitedPBDB, for Cirripedia

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 0 Mya.

Oligocene — about 0 of 25 occurrencesMiocene — about 2 of 25 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 5 of 25 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 18 of 25 occurrencesPleistocene24–23 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.5–4.7 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.7–3.9 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences3.9–3.1 Mya — about 2 occurrences3.1–2.4 Mya — about 3 occurrences2.4–1.6 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.6–785 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence785 ka–0 Mya — about 15 occurrences15.98 Mya129 ka23.5 Mya0 Mya

25 occurrences of Megabalanus californicus 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

25 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

6 formations

Pico — 34.36°N, 118.56°WUnnamed — 33.24°N, 119.47°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.99°N, 118.45°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.60°N, 117.88°WMulege — 27.05°N, 111.97°WYsidro — 28.92°N, 113.95°WIsidro — 26.97°N, 113.18°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Megabalanus californicus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 11 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Megabalanus californicus and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Megabalanus californicus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

788 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 21 sites for Megabalanus californicus, 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

14 references

Each of the 25 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. 2 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 Megabalanus californicus

Credit
Cricket Raspet
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Megabalanus californicus was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access 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 itMegabalanus through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Pilsbry 1916)