Mya

Mya is a genus of saltwater clams, marine bivalve molluscs in the family Myidae. They are widespread and abundant in northern waters. Commonly known as Ipswich clams, soft-shell clam or steamers, they are routinely used as a food source for humans.

Mya

Uncredited · 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
MyidaePBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB, for Myidae
Life habit
infaunalPBDB, for Myidae
Motility
facultatively mobilePBDB, for Myidae
Vision
blindPBDB, for Bivalvia

Time the record covers

At least 165 million years on record.

The record covers at least 165.3 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 168.2 Mya to 0 Mya.

Middle Jurassic — about 1 of 500 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 0 of 500 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 3 of 500 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 3 of 500 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 500 occurrencesEocene — about 51 of 500 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 29 of 500 occurrencesMiocene — about 103 of 500 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 41 of 500 occurrencesPleistocene — about 190 of 500 occurrences172–166 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences166–160 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences126–120 Mya — about 3 occurrences92–86 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences86–80 Mya — about 2 occurrences80–74 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences74–69 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences57–51 Mya — about 2 occurrences51–46 Mya — about 5 occurrences46–40 Mya — about 8 occurrences40–34 Mya — about 32 occurrences34–29 Mya — about 17 occurrences29–23 Mya — about 16 occurrences23–17 Mya — about 22 occurrences17–11 Mya — about 40 occurrences11–5.7 Mya — about 39 occurrences5.7–0 Mya — about 311 occurrences165.3 Mya11.7 ka172 Mya0 Mya

500 occurrences of Mya 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

500 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

120 formations

Tachilni — 54.98°N, 162.85°WTachilni — 54.98°N, 162.68°WTachilni — 54.98°N, 164.65°WTachilni — 54.92°N, 162.87°WTachilni — 54.95°N, 163.05°WTachilni — 54.85°N, 163.41°WPresumpscot — 44.80°N, 68.78°WPresumpscot — 43.64°N, 70.26°WPresumpscot — 43.31°N, 69.78°WPresumpscot — 44.13°N, 68.87°WPresumpscot — 44.10°N, 70.21°WPresumpscot — 43.35°N, 70.50°WPresumpscot — 43.91°N, 69.97°WPresumpscot — 44.55°N, 69.63°WPresumpscot — 43.84°N, 70.10°WPresumpscot — 43.89°N, 70.28°WPresumpscot — 43.63°N, 70.05°WPresumpscot — 44.23°N, 69.78°WNorwich Crag — 52.58°N, 1.38°ESubmeseta — 64.24°S, 56.64°WSubmeseta — 64.24°S, 56.66°WSubmeseta — 64.26°S, 56.66°WSubmeseta — 64.26°S, 56.62°WShitakara — 43.25°N, 144.08°EChamplain Clay — 45.75°N, 62.72°WChamplain Clay — 47.55°N, 52.67°WChamplain Clay — 45.18°N, 73.30°WChamplain Clay — 45.50°N, 73.58°WChamplain Clay — 45.85°N, 71.18°WLa Meseta — 64.24°S, 56.68°WLa Meseta — 64.24°S, 56.65°WLillo — 51.25°N, 4.28°EPoul Creek — 60.08°N, 142.32°WPoul Creek — 60.04°N, 141.88°WPoul Creek — 60.01°N, 141.45°WSaxicava Clay — 49.58°N, 57.93°WRed Crag — 51.97°N, 1.35°ERed Crag — 51.85°N, 1.28°ERed Crag — 52.75°N, 1.53°EEugene — 44.05°N, 123.09°WEugene — 44.04°N, 123.04°WPakhachinskaya — 60.42°N, 165.92°EPakhachinskaya — 60.00°N, 165.00°EEtolonskaya — 58.42°N, 159.00°ELimimtevayamskaya — 58.97°N, 163.92°EKirkwood — 39.46°N, 75.30°WKirkwood — 39.00°N, 75.12°WPamlico — 38.55°N, 75.08°WPamlico — 35.14°N, 76.77°WPamlico — 32.64°N, 80.01°WPamlico — 32.69°N, 80.23°WTakaradayskaya — 47.00°N, 142.10°EShimokine — 44.04°N, 141.85°ECareaga Sandstone — 34.88°N, 120.52°WCareaga Sandstone — 34.74°N, 120.41°WPancho Rico — 36.18°N, 121.18°WPancho Rico — 36.03°N, 120.86°WPancho Rico — 35.90°N, 120.84°WTimms Point Silt — 33.73°N, 118.28°WTimms Point Silt — 33.78°N, 118.35°WNarrrow Cape Formaton — 56.54°N, 154.34°WStepovak — 55.26°N, 160.70°WStepovak — 55.66°N, 160.23°W

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The named rock units Mya has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 96 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 189 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Mya and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Mya and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

2,445 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 228 sites for Mya, 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

113 references

Each of the 500 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. 101 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 Mya

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No repository was searched for a 3D scan: the genus name is too short to search on without matching most of the record.

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 itMyidae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

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