Ostrea equestris
Ostrea equestris, commonly known as the crested oyster or horse oyster, is a species of bivalve mollusc in the family Ostreidae. It can be found along the Atlantic coast of North and South America, ranging from Virginia to Patagonia.

FWC Fish and Wildlife Research Institute · CC BY 2.0 · 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
- OstreaPBDB
- Diet
- suspension feederPBDB, for Ostreidae
- Life habit
- epifaunalPBDB, for Ostreidae
- Motility
- stationary, attachedPBDB, for Ostreidae
- Vision
- blindPBDB, for Bivalvia
- Environment
- hypersaline,marine,brackishPBDB, for Ostreidae
Time the record covers
At least 7.2 million years on record.
The record covers at least 7.246 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 11.63 Mya to 0 Mya.
36 occurrences of Ostrea equestris 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
36 occurrences- Miocene56%
- Pleistocene19%
- Holocene25%
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
5 formations
- Gatun Formation19
- Fort Thompson Formation2
- Chuy Formation2
- Falmouth Formation · Coastal Group1
- Caujarao Formation1
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The named rock units Ostrea equestris has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 11 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Ostrea equestris and its relatives
MioceneWhere Ostrea equestris and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.
Found in the same rock
536 taxa- Callocardia (Agriopoma) gatunensis12 sites
- Anadara (Rasia) dariensis dariensis10 sites
- Oliva gatunensis10 sites
- Psammacoma gatunensis10 sites
- Stigmaulax guppiana10 sites
- Lirophora (Panchione) mactropsis9 sites
- Turritella (Bactrospira) altilira8 sites
- Cadulus (Platyschides)7 sites
- Chione (Chionopsis) tegulum7 sites
- Crucibulum (Dispotaea) springvaleense7 sites
- Polinices stanislasmeunieri7 sites
- Varicorbula disparilis7 sites
- Caryocorbula oropendula stena6 sites
- Cyclostremiscus (Ponocyclus) pentagonus6 sites
- Heleobia australis6 sites
- Naticarius6 sites
- Nucula (Lamellinucula) semiornata6 sites
- Saccella balboae6 sites
- Anomia simplex5 sites
- Bothrocorbula (Hexacorbula) gatunensis5 sites
- Carditamera plata5 sites
- Clementia (Clementia) dariena dariena5 sites
- Conus molis5 sites
- Cyclinella cyclica5 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 29 sites for Ostrea equestris, 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
11 references- Geology and paleontology of canal zone and adjoing parts of Panama: Description of Tertiary mollusks (Pelecypods: Propeamussiidae to Cuspidariidae).19
- Paleontologia de los sedimentos marinos holocenos de los alrededores de Bahia Blanca, Provincia de Buenos Aires5
- Taphonomy of the Late Pleistocene marine molluscan assemblages from Uruguay3
- Relict shelf-edge Holocene coral reef: southeast coast of Florida2
- A middle Pleistocene marine molluscan assemblage from the Southern coastal plain of Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil1
- Mollusca: Fort Thompson Formation (Late Pleistocene)1
- The Quaternary geological history of the Santa Catarina southeastern region (Brazil)1
- The benthic mollusk faunas of two contrasting reef paleosubenvironments: Falmouth Formation (late Pleistocene, last interglacial), Jamaica1
- The Pleistocene molluscan fauna from Leisley Shell Pit 1, Hillsborough County, Florida1
- Unpublished notes on Caribbean collection of the Naturhistorisches Museum Basel1
- Cenozoic Mollusks from the drillholes Cassino and Palmares do Sul of the Coastal Plain of Rio Grande do Sul1
Each of the 36 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. 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 Ostrea equestris
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- FWC Fish and Wildlife Research Institute
- Licence
- CC BY 2.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Ostrea equestris was found in Sketchfab.
Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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 itOstrea through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Say 1834)