Saffordia

Saffordia is an extinct genus of bivalve mollusc of the order Modiomorphida. It lived during the middle to late Ordovician. Based on other members of it family, this clam was a stationary epifaunal suspension feeder. Its only species is Saffordia ventralis, which features a prominent escutcheon and is similar to – possibly synonymous with – Heikea. The clam can be distinguished from others due to its parallel shell haves with noticeable notches at the end.

Saffordia

Fossiladder13 · 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
ModiomorphidaePBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB, for Modiomorphidae
Life habit
epifaunalPBDB, for Modiomorphidae
Motility
stationary, attachedPBDB, for Modiomorphidae
Vision
blindPBDB, for Bivalvia
Environment
marinePBDB, for Modiomorphidae

Time the record covers

At least 800 thousand years on record.

The record covers at least 451 Mya to 450.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 458.2 Mya to 445.2 Mya.

Ordovician — about 19 of 19 occurrencesOrdovician458–458 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences458–457 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences457–457 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences457–456 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences456–456 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences456–455 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences455–455 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences455–455 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences455–454 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences454–454 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences454–453 Mya — about 1 occurrence453–453 Mya — about 1 occurrence453–452 Mya — about 1 occurrence452–452 Mya — about 1 occurrence452–451 Mya — about 1 occurrence451–451 Mya — about 2 occurrences451–450 Mya — about 3 occurrences450–450 Mya — about 2 occurrences450–449 Mya — about 1 occurrence449–449 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences449–448 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences448–448 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences448–448 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences448–447 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences447–447 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences447–446 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences446–446 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences446–445 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences451 Mya – 450.2 Mya458.7 Mya444.7 Mya

19 occurrences of Saffordia on record, most of them in the Ordovician. 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

19 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

10 formations

Dunleith — 42.00°N, 90.50°WProsser Limestone — 42.50°N, 91.00°WProsser Limestone — 46.00°N, 94.00°WScales Shale — 42.00°N, 90.50°WVerulam — 44.45°N, 78.70°WVerulam — 44.48°N, 78.95°WMaquoketa — 42.50°N, 91.25°WCummingsville — 46.00°N, 94.00°WStewartville — 46.00°N, 94.00°WWise Lake — 42.00°N, 90.50°WAmadjuak — 63.72°N, 68.97°WDolbor — 62.95°N, 108.60°E

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The named rock units Saffordia has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Saffordia and its relatives

Ordovician

Where Saffordia and its relatives were recorded in the Ordovician.

Found in the same rock

313 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 19 sites for Saffordia, 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

6 references

Each of the 19 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 Saffordia

Credit
Fossiladder13
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itModiomorphidae through timeFormations of the OrdovicianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Ulrich 1894