Scenella

Scenella is an extinct genus of fossil invertebrate animal which is generally considered to be a mollusc; at various times it has been suggested that this genus belongs with the gastropods, the monoplacophorans, or the helcionellids, although no firm association with any of these classes has been established. An affinity with the hydrozoa has been considered, although some authors oppose this hypothesis. A gastropod affinity is defended on the basis of six pairs of internal muscle scars, whilst the serially-repeated nature of these scars suggests to other authors a monoplacophoran affinity. However the specimens showing this scarring have not been convincingly shown to belong to the genus Scenella. A similarity to the Ediacaran Ovatoscutum has also been drawn.

Scenella

Frederick Chapman (1864-1943) · Public Domain · 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
ScenellidaePBDB
Diet
grazerPBDB
Life habit
epifaunalPBDB
Motility
facultatively mobilePBDB
Vision
blindPBDB, for Scenellidae

Time the record covers

At least 94 million years on record.

The record covers at least 521 Mya to 426.7 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 530.7 Mya to 425 Mya.

Cambrian — about 69 of 108 occurrencesCambrianOrdovician — about 38 of 108 occurrencesOrdovicianSilurian — about 1 of 108 occurrencesSilurian533–529 Mya — about 2 occurrences529–525 Mya — about 4 occurrences525–522 Mya — about 8 occurrences522–518 Mya — about 6 occurrences518–514 Mya — about 6 occurrences514–511 Mya — about 4 occurrences511–507 Mya — about 19 occurrences507–504 Mya — about 17 occurrences504–500 Mya — about 2 occurrences500–496 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences496–493 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences493–489 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences489–485 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences485–482 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences482–478 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences478–474 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences474–471 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences471–467 Mya — about 2 occurrences467–463 Mya — about 2 occurrences463–460 Mya — about 2 occurrences460–456 Mya — about 6 occurrences456–452 Mya — about 12 occurrences452–449 Mya — about 10 occurrences449–445 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences430–427 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences427–423 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences521 Mya426.7 Mya533 Mya423 Mya

108 occurrences of Scenella on record, most of them in the Cambrian. 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

108 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

49 formations

Burgess Shale — 51.44°N, 116.47°WBurgess Shale — 51.03°N, 115.83°WBurgess Shale — 51.38°N, 116.43°WDunleith — 42.00°N, 90.50°WYanjiahe — 30.73°N, 111.03°EYanjiahe — 30.78°N, 111.35°EDengying — 30.73°N, 111.13°EDengying — 30.77°N, 111.12°EBrigus — 47.85°N, 53.94°WBrigus — 47.55°N, 52.92°WQuimbys Mill — 42.00°N, 90.50°WQuimbys Mill — 44.98°N, 93.27°WZhujiaqing — 27.93°N, 103.56°EZhujiaqing — 26.28°N, 103.22°EPlatteville — 46.00°N, 94.00°WGrand Detour — 42.00°N, 90.50°WNachusa — 42.00°N, 90.50°WSpechts Ferry — 42.00°N, 90.50°WXinji — 33.27°N, 112.98°EXinji — 33.38°N, 113.43°EExsulans Limestone — 55.68°N, 14.25°EExsulans Limestone — 55.08°N, 15.08°EChazy — 44.89°N, 73.44°WMt. Whyte — 51.50°N, 116.50°WMt. Whyte — 51.42°N, 116.45°WNiutitang — 27.60°N, 106.71°ENiutitang — 27.67°N, 106.68°EDay Point — 44.87°N, 73.48°WDay Point — 44.61°N, 73.44°WLukatite, Tiskre — 59.12°N, 31.03°ESchodack — 42.53°N, 73.69°WBuelna — 30.42°N, 111.93°WDecorah Shale — 46.00°N, 94.00°WCummingsville — 46.00°N, 94.00°WProsser Limestone — 46.00°N, 94.00°WStewartville — 46.00°N, 94.00°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Scenella has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 25 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Scenella and its relatives

Cambrian

Where Scenella and its relatives were recorded in the Cambrian.

Found in the same rock

789 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 88 sites for Scenella, 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

42 references

Each of the 108 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. 30 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 content1

Picture of Scenella

Credit
Frederick Chapman (1864-1943)
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Scenella 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 itScenellidae through timeFormations of the CambrianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Billings 1872