Phymatella bulbosa

Yale Peabody Museum · CC0 · via GBIF. 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
- PhymatellaPBDB
- Diet
- suspension feederPBDB, for Lithistida
- Life habit
- epifaunalPBDB, for Lithistida
- Motility
- stationary, attachedPBDB, for Lithistida
- Vision
- blindPBDB, for Porifera
- Environment
- marinePBDB, for Lithistida
Time the record covers
At least 6.2 million years on record.
The record covers at least 89.8 Mya to 83.6 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 93.9 Mya to 72.2 Mya.
11 occurrences of Phymatella bulbosa on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. 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
11 occurrences- Late Cretaceous100%
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
2 formations
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The named rock units Phymatella bulbosa has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 8 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Phymatella bulbosa and its relatives
Late CretaceousWhere Phymatella bulbosa and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.
Found in the same rock
342 taxa- Verruculina tenuis8 sites
- Doryderma (Brochodora) roemeri7 sites
- Jereica polystoma7 sites
- Callopegma acaule6 sites
- Leiochonia cryptoporosa6 sites
- Pachycothon giganteum6 sites
- Ragadinia rimosa6 sites
- Seliscothon6 sites
- Seliscothon mantelli6 sites
- Astrocladia subramosa5 sites
- Aulosoma radiciformis5 sites
- Coeloptychium deciminum5 sites
- Leptophragma murchisoni5 sites
- Pachinion scriptum5 sites
- Plinthosella squamosa5 sites
- Verruculina seriatopora5 sites
- Amphithelion (Amphithelion) macrommata4 sites
- Aulaxinia sulcifera4 sites
- Chonella tenuis4 sites
- Coeloptychium agaricoides4 sites
- Coscinopora infundibuliformis4 sites
- Coscinostoma fragilis4 sites
- Doryderma (Brochodora) ramusculus4 sites
- Eustrobilus callosus4 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 11 sites for Phymatella bulbosa, 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- Die Kieselspongien der oberen Kreide von Nordwestdeutschland, Teil 1 Tetraxonia, Monaxonia und Silicea incert. sedis [Upper Cretaceous sponges from north-western Germany, part 1 Tetraxonia, Monaxonia and Silicea incert. sedis]6
- Die Spongien der Ilsenburg-Entwicklung (Oberes Unter-Campan) der Subherzynen Kreidemulde [Sponges of the Ilsenburg Formation (Upper Lower Campanian) of the Subhercynian Cretaceous Basin2
- Siliceous sponges from the Upper Cretaceous of Poland, part 1: Tetraxonia2
- Les spongiaires Turoniens du synclinal d'Eygaliers (Baronnies, Drome) [Turonian sponges from the Eygaliers syncline (Baronnies, Drome)]1
Each of the 11 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. Each entry links to the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.
Media and terms
Media content1

Picture of Phymatella bulbosa
- Source
- GBIF
- Credit
- Yale Peabody Museum
- Licence
- CC0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.
This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.
Keep going
What may have been alongside itPhymatella through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Zittel 1878