Mollusca

Mollusca is a phylum of protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks. 86,600 extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum after Arthropoda. The number of additional fossil species is estimated between 60,000 and 100,000, and the proportion of undescribed extant species is very high. Many taxa remain poorly studied.

Mollusca

PaleoNeolitic · 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
molluskPBDB
Sits inside
LophotrochozoaPBDB

Time the record covers

At least 468 million years on record.

The record covers at least 509.7 Mya to 41.03 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 538.8 Mya to 33.9 Mya.

Cambrian — about 54 of 12000 occurrencesCambrianOrdovician — about 976 of 12000 occurrencesOrdovicianSilurian — about 496 of 12000 occurrencesDevonian — about 273 of 12000 occurrencesDevonianCarboniferous — about 886 of 12000 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 78 of 12000 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 0 of 12000 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 0 of 12000 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 0 of 12000 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 0 of 12000 occurrencesMiddle Jurassic — about 0 of 12000 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 1517 of 12000 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 89 of 12000 occurrencesLate Cretaceous — about 5773 of 12000 occurrencesPaleocene — about 0 of 12000 occurrencesEocene — about 1858 of 12000 occurrencesOligocene — about 0 of 12000 occurrences549–531 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences531–514 Mya — about 4 occurrences514–496 Mya — about 20 occurrences496–479 Mya — about 114 occurrences479–461 Mya — about 131 occurrences461–444 Mya — about 726 occurrences444–426 Mya — about 355 occurrences426–409 Mya — about 223 occurrences409–391 Mya — about 52 occurrences391–374 Mya — about 132 occurrences374–356 Mya — about 47 occurrences356–339 Mya — about 120 occurrences339–321 Mya — about 134 occurrences321–304 Mya — about 416 occurrences304–286 Mya — about 285 occurrences286–269 Mya — about 2 occurrences269–251 Mya — about 1 occurrence164–146 Mya — about 808 occurrences146–129 Mya — about 709 occurrences129–111 Mya — about 89 occurrences94–76 Mya — about 486 occurrences76–59 Mya — about 5287 occurrences59–41 Mya — about 1207 occurrences41–24 Mya — about 651 occurrences509.7 Mya41.03 Mya549 Mya24 Mya

12,000+ occurrences of Mollusca on record. 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

12,000 occurrences read

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. The read hit its cap, so every figure above is a floor and the shares are of the occurrences read. More on what this infers.

Found in

at least 238 formations

Kap Leslie — 70.48°N, 21.97°WMoodys Branch — 32.85°N, 90.41°WMoodys Branch — 32.95°N, 90.17°WMoodys Branch — 32.23°N, 92.15°WMoodys Branch — 32.01°N, 92.00°WMoodys Branch — 32.33°N, 90.15°WMoodys Branch — 31.88°N, 88.69°WPierre Shale — 43.27°N, 104.27°WPierre Shale — 43.30°N, 104.14°WPierre Shale — 43.27°N, 104.22°WJalama — 34.53°N, 120.41°WJalama — 34.51°N, 120.45°WJalama — 34.50°N, 120.34°WLisbon — 31.53°N, 87.60°WLisbon — 31.84°N, 88.25°WLisbon — 31.50°N, 87.80°WCook Mountain — 31.29°N, 86.56°WCook Mountain — 31.31°N, 86.48°WCook Mountain — 30.53°N, 96.69°WCook Mountain — 31.25°N, 95.73°WCook Mountain — 31.75°N, 92.97°WNanjemoy — 37.52°N, 76.79°WCherokee Shale — 37.35°N, 94.99°WCherokee Shale — 37.36°N, 94.82°WCherokee Shale — 37.23°N, 95.10°WCherokee Shale — 37.60°N, 94.68°WCherokee Shale — 37.46°N, 94.80°WCherokee Shale — 37.04°N, 95.17°WCherokee Shale — 37.14°N, 95.10°WCherokee Shale — 37.21°N, 94.99°WCherokee Shale — 37.65°N, 94.71°WCherokee Shale — 37.33°N, 94.80°WCherokee Shale — 37.61°N, 94.62°WCherokee Shale — 39.49°N, 94.28°WCherokee Shale — 37.01°N, 94.88°WCherokee Shale — 37.11°N, 94.82°WCherokee Shale — 37.24°N, 94.80°WCherokee Shale — 37.04°N, 95.13°WCherokee Shale — 37.35°N, 94.89°WGraham — 33.02°N, 98.64°WGraham — 33.00°N, 98.67°WGraham — 33.11°N, 98.59°WGraham — 32.96°N, 98.76°WGraham — 33.09°N, 98.46°WGraham — 31.50°N, 99.37°WGraham — 31.44°N, 99.34°WMaastricht — 51.00°N, 6.00°EWaynesville — 39.45°N, 83.83°WWaynesville — 39.44°N, 84.20°WWaynesville — 39.42°N, 85.01°WWaynesville — 39.00°N, 84.00°WKope — 38.87°N, 84.46°WKope — 39.00°N, 84.00°WAtherfield Clay — 50.60°N, 1.32°WWhitewater — 39.83°N, 84.89°WWhitewater — 39.42°N, 85.01°WWhitewater — 39.00°N, 84.00°WCockfield — 32.23°N, 92.15°WCockfield — 31.88°N, 88.69°WMahantango — 40.50°N, 77.25°WMahantango — 40.05°N, 77.52°WFairview — 39.47°N, 87.41°WFairview — 39.00°N, 84.00°WLost Branch — 40.48°N, 93.00°WLost Branch — 38.25°N, 94.69°WLost Branch — 37.16°N, 95.46°WLost Branch — 37.19°N, 95.42°WLost Branch — 38.02°N, 94.91°WLost Branch — 35.94°N, 96.00°WLost Branch — 35.12°N, 96.43°WWann — 36.57°N, 95.98°WWann — 36.76°N, 96.01°WWann — 36.53°N, 95.98°WWann — 36.92°N, 95.81°WWann — 36.92°N, 95.90°WWann — 36.55°N, 96.08°WJoslin Hill — 43.21°N, 75.46°WYazoo Clay — 32.23°N, 92.15°WYazoo Clay — 32.33°N, 90.15°WElton Beds — 52.37°N, 2.73°WElton Beds — 52.17°N, 3.42°WElton Beds — 52.12°N, 3.55°WForaker Limestome — 39.49°N, 96.27°WForaker Limestome — 39.07°N, 96.07°WForaker Limestome — 39.27°N, 96.57°WForaker Limestome — 39.39°N, 96.41°WForaker Limestome — 39.07°N, 96.18°WForaker Limestome — 37.64°N, 96.43°WForaker Limestome — 37.65°N, 96.46°WTsingyuan — 37.45°N, 105.67°ETsingyuan — 39.00°N, 106.00°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Mollusca has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. The read hit its cap, so each count is a floor. 214 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 5,124 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Found in the same rock

1,669 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records at least 353 sites for Mollusca, and this reads 240 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

at least 194 references

Each of the 12,000 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. That read hit its cap, so each count is a floor. 182 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 content3

Picture of Mollusca

Credit
PaleoNeolitic
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Photogrammetry

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
mollusca indet. · MST:PALEO:MST-SP-2476

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC0 Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

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 itLophotrochozoa through timeThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Linnaeus 1758)