Orbulina universa

via iDigBio · CC0 · via iDigBio. 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
- OrbulinaPBDB
- Diet
- omnivorePBDB, for Foraminifera
- Life habit
- semi-infaunalPBDB, for Foraminifera
- Motility
- stationaryPBDB, for Foraminifera
Time the record covers
At least 83 million years on record.
The record covers at least 83.6 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 100.5 Mya to 0 Mya.
2,745 occurrences of Orbulina universa on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. 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
2,745 occurrences- Late Cretaceousunder 1%
- Paleoceneunder 1%
- Eoceneunder 1%
- Oligoceneunder 1%
- Miocene22%
- Pliocene26%
- Pleistocene51%
- Holoceneunder 1%
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
16 formations
- Cholan Formation1
- Chatti Mudstone Formation1
- Esmeraldas Formation1
- Borbon Formation1
- Escudo de Veraguas Formation · Bocas del Toro Group1
- Choctawhatchee Formation1
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The named rock units Orbulina universa has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2,729 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Orbulina universa and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Orbulina universa and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
608 taxa- Globigerinoides ruber184 sites
- Globigerina bulloides176 sites
- Globorotalia (Hirsutella) scitula142 sites
- Trilobatus sacculifer131 sites
- Neogloboquadrina dutertrei129 sites
- Globigerinella siphonifera127 sites
- Globoconella inflata124 sites
- Globorotalia (Menardella) menardii118 sites
- Globorotalia (Globorotalia) tumida116 sites
- Neogloboquadrina acostaensis109 sites
- Pulleniatina obliquiloculata109 sites
- Globigerinita glutinata107 sites
- Globigerinoides conglobatus107 sites
- Globigerinoides88 sites
- Globorotalia crassaformis85 sites
- Globigerinoides obliquus81 sites
- Neogloboquadrina humerosa81 sites
- Dentoglobigerina venezuelana78 sites
- Globigerinoides extremus76 sites
- Pulleniatina primalis72 sites
- Globorotalia plesiotumida71 sites
- Globigerinella obesa70 sites
- Globorotalia (Menardella) limbata70 sites
- Globoturborotalita apertura70 sites
The Paleobiology Database records at least 2,000 sites for Orbulina universa, 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
121 references- Site U1389168
- Site U1476159
- Site U1387142
- Site U1474125
- Site U1479114
- Site U1386111
- Site U1391108
- Site U144775
- Site U147574
- Site U133869
- Site U147866
- Site U135263
Each of the 2,745 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. 109 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 Orbulina universa
- Source
- iDigBio
- Credit
- via iDigBio
- Licence
- CC0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
3D model
- Source
- Sketchfab
- Licence
- CC Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
- Commercial use
- the licence does not allow it
Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.
This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.
Keep going
What may have been alongside itOrbulina through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. d'Orbigny 1839