Nummulites

Searched as Nummulites contortusstriatus. The Paleobiology Database treats Nummulites as the accepted name.

A nummulite is a large lenticular fossil, characterised by its numerous coils, subdivided by septa into chambers. They are the shells of the fossil and present-day marine protozoan Nummulites, a type of foraminiferan. Nummulites commonly vary in diameter from 13 to 50 mm and are common in Eocene to Miocene marine rocks, particularly around southwest Asia and the Mediterranean in the area that once constituted the Tethys Ocean, such as Eocene limestones from Egypt or from Pakistan. Fossils up to six inches wide are found in the Middle Eocene rocks of Turkey. They are valuable as index fossils.

Nummulites

Wilson44691 · 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
NummulitinaePBDB
Diet
omnivorePBDB, for Foraminifera
Life habit
semi-infaunalPBDB, for Foraminifera
Motility
stationaryPBDB, for Foraminifera

Time the record covers

At most 3.4 million years on record.

The one occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 41.03 Mya and 37.71 Mya, which is a dating window rather than a span.

Eocene — about 1 of 1 occurrenceEocene41–41 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences41–41 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences41–41 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences41–41 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences41–40 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences40–40 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences40–40 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences40–40 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences40–40 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences40–40 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences40–40 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences40–39 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences39–39 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences39–39 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences39–39 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences39–39 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences39–39 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences39–39 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences38–38 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences38–38 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences38–38 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences38–38 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences38–38 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences41.53 Mya37.21 Mya

1 occurrence of Nummulites on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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

1 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

1 formation

Maadi — 29.94°N, 30.56°E

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The named rock units Nummulites has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Nummulites and its relatives

Eocene

Where Nummulites and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

1,685 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 375 sites for Nummulites, 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

1 reference

Each of the 1 occurrence 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. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content3

Picture of Nummulites

Credit
Wilson44691
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Nummulites sp. · NHMD:MP:1811514

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

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 itNummulitinae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Lamarck 1801