Nematoda

The nematodes, roundworms or eelworms constitute the phylum Nematoda. Species in the phylum inhabit a broad range of environments. Most species are free-living, feeding on microorganisms, but many are parasitic. Parasitic worms (helminths) are the cause of soil-transmitted helminthiases.

Nematoda

Bob Goldstein, UNC Chapel Hill http://bio.unc.edu/people/faculty/goldstein/ · 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
roundwormPBDB
Sits inside
NematoideaPBDB

Time the record covers

At least 410 million years on record.

The record covers at least 410.62 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 413.02 Mya to 0 Mya.

Silurian — about 0 of 120 occurrencesDevonian — about 1 of 120 occurrencesDevonianCarboniferous — about 0 of 120 occurrencesPermian — about 0 of 120 occurrencesEarly Triassic — about 0 of 120 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 3 of 120 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 0 of 120 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 1 of 120 occurrencesMiddle Jurassic — about 0 of 120 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 0 of 120 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 5 of 120 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 22 of 120 occurrencesPaleocene — about 0 of 120 occurrencesEocene — about 31 of 120 occurrencesOligocene — about 1 of 120 occurrencesMiocene — about 54 of 120 occurrencesPliocene — about 1 of 120 occurrencesPleistocene — about 0 of 120 occurrences421–407 Mya — about 1 occurrence253–239 Mya — about 2 occurrences239–225 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences211–197 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences197–183 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences126–112 Mya — about 5 occurrences112–98 Mya — about 7 occurrences98–84 Mya — about 15 occurrences56–42 Mya — about 1 occurrence42–28 Mya — about 30 occurrences28–14 Mya — about 53 occurrences14–0 Mya — about 4 occurrences410.62 Mya11.7 ka421 Mya0 Mya

120 occurrences of Nematoda on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

120 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

9 formations

Sainte-Barbe Clays — 50.48°N, 3.65°ESanta Maria — 29.75°S, 53.00°WLombardische Kieselkalk — 46.00°N, 9.08°EHelvetiafjellet — 78.41°N, 14.44°ERott — 50.75°N, 7.26°ELa Toca — 19.22°N, 70.67°WDryden Flags — 57.34°N, 2.85°WDunstan — 45.48°S, 169.31°EMeissner — 50.94°N, 11.25°E

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The named rock units Nematoda has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 109 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Nematoda and its relatives

Miocene

Where Nematoda and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

3,263 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 34 sites for Nematoda, 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

29 references

Each of the 120 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. 17 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 content2

Picture of Nematoda

Credit
Bob Goldstein, UNC Chapel Hill http://bio.unc.edu/people/faculty/goldstein/
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itNematoidea through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Potts 1932