Opalia

Opalia is a genus of small sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Epitoniidae, commonly known as wentletraps.

Opalia

MNHN, Paris - A. NAPPO - 2021 · CC BY-SA 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
Sits inside
EpitoniidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Epitoniidae
Life habit
low-level epifaunalPBDB, for Epitoniidae
Motility
slow-movingPBDB, for Epitoniidae
Vision
limitedPBDB, for Gastropoda

Time the record covers

At least 113 million years on record.

The record covers at least 113.2 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 119.57 Mya to 0 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 1 of 165 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 9 of 165 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 7 of 165 occurrencesEocene — about 21 of 165 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 16 of 165 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 45 of 165 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 25 of 165 occurrencesPleistocene — about 41 of 165 occurrences122–118 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences118–114 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences114–110 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences85–81 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences81–77 Mya — about 2 occurrences77–73 Mya — about 2 occurrences73–69 Mya — about 3 occurrences69–65 Mya — about 3 occurrences65–61 Mya — about 3 occurrences61–57 Mya — about 3 occurrences57–53 Mya — about 4 occurrences53–49 Mya — about 5 occurrences49–45 Mya — about 4 occurrences45–41 Mya — about 4 occurrences41–37 Mya — about 5 occurrences37–33 Mya — about 2 occurrences33–28 Mya — about 5 occurrences28–24 Mya — about 7 occurrences24–20 Mya — about 6 occurrences20–16 Mya — about 6 occurrences16–12 Mya — about 27 occurrences12–8.1 Mya — about 5 occurrences8.1–4.1 Mya — about 7 occurrences4.1–0 Mya — about 62 occurrences113.2 Mya129 ka122 Mya0 Mya

165 occurrences of Opalia 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

165 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

63 formations

Palos Verdes Sand — 33.99°N, 118.45°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.60°N, 117.88°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.71°N, 118.27°WSan Diego — 34.04°N, 118.53°WSan Diego — 32.54°N, 117.11°WReklaw — 30.88°N, 95.38°WReklaw — 30.01°N, 97.26°WReklaw — 30.80°N, 96.72°WLomita Marl — 33.75°N, 118.30°WOlcese — 35.45°N, 118.87°WOlcese — 35.45°N, 118.87°WBlakeley — 47.58°N, 122.48°WBlakeley — 47.55°N, 122.34°WFaluns de la Touraine — 47.40°N, 1.23°ECook Mountain — 31.09°N, 95.95°WCook Mountain — 30.62°N, 96.56°WCook Mountain — 30.64°N, 96.52°WPico — 34.36°N, 118.56°WPico — 34.32°N, 118.68°WLondon Clay — 50.89°N, 1.28°WLondon Clay — 51.73°N, 0.48°EPittsburg Bluff — 45.82°N, 123.18°WPittsburg Bluff — 45.86°N, 123.11°WPittsburg Bluff — 46.00°N, 123.26°WAstoria — 44.74°N, 124.06°WFernando — 34.05°N, 118.25°WFernando — 34.05°N, 118.25°WTimms Point Silt — 33.73°N, 118.28°WRound Mountain Silt — 35.43°N, 118.81°WPebble Point — 38.70°S, 143.18°EMexcala — 18.16°N, 98.94°WUnnamed — 33.24°N, 119.51°WSan Julian — 46.87°S, 66.95°WSan Julian — 47.08°S, 66.70°WBowden — 17.88°N, 76.28°WNavidad — 33.83°S, 71.83°WNavidad — 33.95°S, 71.87°WBranden Clay — 56.80°N, 9.04°EBranden Clay — 57.27°N, 9.73°EWerder — 52.98°N, 9.06°ENancy Point — 9.15°N, 81.95°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Opalia has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 39 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 38 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Opalia and its relatives

Miocene

Where Opalia and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

1,913 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 119 sites for Opalia, and this reads all of them. Of that, one read hit the database's own return limit, so every count below is a floor rather than a total. 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

76 references

Each of the 165 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. 64 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 Opalia

Credit
MNHN, Paris - A. NAPPO - 2021
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Opalia 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 itEpitoniidae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Adams and Adams 1853)