Paphies

Paphies is a genus of large, edible saltwater clams, marine bivalve molluscs in the family Mesodesmatidae. The genus is endemic to New Zealand. The species include the pipi, tuatua and toheroa.

Paphies

Uncredited · CC BY 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
MesodesmatidaePBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB, for Mactroidea
Life habit
infaunalPBDB, for Mactroidea
Motility
facultatively mobilePBDB, for Mactroidea
Vision
blindPBDB, for Bivalvia

Time the record covers

At least 3.5 million years on record.

The record covers at least 3.6 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 5.333 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 0 of 6 occurrencesPliocene — about 2 of 6 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 3 of 6 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 1 of 6 occurrences5.4–5.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.3–5.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.1–4.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.9–4.7 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.7–4.5 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.5–4.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.3–4.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.1–3.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.9–3.7 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.7–3.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences778 ka–583 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences583 ka–389 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences389 ka–194 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences194 ka–0 Mya — about 2 occurrences3.6 Mya11.7 ka5.8 Mya0 Mya

6 occurrences of Paphies on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. 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

6 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

4 formations

Otahuhu — 37.21°S, 174.90°EOtahuhu — 36.95°S, 174.84°EWaiomio — 40.03°S, 175.48°EHerschell Limestone — 32.00°S, 115.52°ETims Thicket/Kooallup Limestone — 32.65°S, 115.63°E

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

Paphies and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Paphies and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

149 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 4 sites for Paphies, 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

4 references

Each of the 6 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 Paphies

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Paphies 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 itMesodesmatidae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Lesson 1831