Morula

Morula is a genus of small, predatory sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs in the subfalily Ergalataxinae of the family Muricidae, the murex snails or rock snails.

Morula

Jan Delsing · Public Domain · 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
MuricidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Muricidae
Life habit
epifaunalPBDB, for Muricidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Muricidae
Vision
limitedPBDB, for Gastropoda

Time the record covers

At least 20 million years on record.

The record covers at least 20.45 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 23.04 Mya to 0 Mya.

Oligocene — about 0 of 24 occurrencesMiocene — about 6 of 24 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 5 of 24 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 12 of 24 occurrencesPleistocene24–23 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 1 occurrence13–13 Mya — about 1 occurrence13–12 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences10–9.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.4–8.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.6–7.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.8–7.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.1–6.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.3–5.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.5–4.7 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences4.7–3.9 Mya — about 1 occurrence3.9–3.1 Mya — about 2 occurrences3.1–2.4 Mya — about 2 occurrences2.4–1.6 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.6–785 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence785 ka–0 Mya — about 10 occurrences20.45 Mya11.7 ka23.5 Mya0 Mya

24 occurrences of Morula 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

24 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

10 formations

Mare — 10.00°N, 64.00°WMare — 10.61°N, 63.52°WKorytnica Clays — 50.67°N, 20.52°EOtahuhu — 36.95°S, 174.84°EAbisinia — 10.00°N, 63.00°WOrmara & Jiwani — 25.42°N, 65.50°EDampier Limestone — 25.53°S, 113.48°EFalun de Saucats — 44.66°N, 0.57°WNakasi — 18.03°S, 178.52°EMonterey — 33.59°N, 117.71°WOlcese — 35.44°N, 118.88°W

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The named rock units Morula 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.

Morula and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Morula and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

703 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 12 sites for Morula, 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

18 references

Each of the 24 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. 6 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 Morula

Credit
Jan Delsing
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Morula 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 itMuricidae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Schumacher 1817)