Seraphs

Seraphs is an extinct genus of sea snails in the family Seraphsidae. Like its modern relative Terebellum, Seraphs had a streamlined shell adapted for burrowing. The earliest species of Seraphs, Seraphs minus, dates to the Danian age of the early Paleocene, while the youngest known species of the genus, Seraphs subconvolutus, dates to the Aquitanian age of the Miocene. The type species of the genus is Terebellum convolutum, now considered a synonym of Seraphs volutatus.

Seraphs

via iDigBio · CC BY-NC-ND · via iDigBio. 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
SeraphsidaePBDB
Diet
grazerPBDB, for Stromboidea
Life habit
epifaunalPBDB, for Stromboidea
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Stromboidea
Vision
limitedPBDB, for Gastropoda

Time the record covers

At least 56 million years on record.

The record covers at least 61.66 Mya to 5.333 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 66 Mya to 2.58 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 0 of 64 occurrencesPaleocene — about 2 of 64 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 55 of 64 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 3 of 64 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 3 of 64 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 64 occurrencesPleistocene — about 0 of 64 occurrences67–65 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences65–63 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences63–61 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences61–58 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences58–56 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences56–54 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences54–52 Mya — about 1 occurrence52–50 Mya — about 1 occurrence50–47 Mya — about 3 occurrences47–45 Mya — about 8 occurrences45–43 Mya — about 8 occurrences43–41 Mya — about 8 occurrences41–39 Mya — about 7 occurrences39–36 Mya — about 8 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 9 occurrences34–32 Mya — about 2 occurrences32–30 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences30–28 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences28–25 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences25–23 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences23–21 Mya — about 1 occurrence21–19 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences19–17 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences12–10 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences10–7.9 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences7.9–5.7 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences5.7–3.5 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences3.5–1.3 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences61.66 Mya5.333 Mya67 Mya1 Mya

64 occurrences of Seraphs on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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

64 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

23 formations

Nanggulan — 7.73°S, 110.18°ENanggulan — 7.48°S, 110.05°ECalcaire de Fresville — 49.12°N, 1.71°EInglis Limestone — 29.23°N, 82.70°WInglis Limestone — 29.03°N, 82.67°WInglis Limestone — 29.45°N, 82.64°WChiampo Marble — 45.55°N, 11.28°EMartinez — 38.90°N, 122.61°WSables a Nummulites variolarius — 49.25°N, 2.50°EBarton Clay — 50.74°N, 1.69°WGatuncillo — 9.15°N, 79.73°WGhubbarah — 19.04°N, 57.75°EWarak — 19.04°N, 57.75°ENari — 26.36°N, 67.86°EGaj — 26.88°N, 67.26°EMarna di Possagno — 46.16°N, 13.37°ESan Juan — 16.59°N, 92.89°WInucu — 46.85°N, 23.20°ECapusu — 46.78°N, 23.03°ETrucco — 45.53°N, 10.82°EBanc à verrins — 48.85°N, 1.94°ESables de Pourcy — 49.27°N, 3.85°ECalcaire à Astéries — 43.62°N, 1.05°WMoodys Branch — 32.28°N, 90.18°WSables Moyens — 49.04°N, 3.11°EPallinup — 34.65°S, 117.65°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Seraphs has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 31 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Seraphs and its relatives

Eocene

Where Seraphs and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

1,356 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 42 sites for Seraphs, 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

33 references

Each of the 64 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. 21 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 Seraphs

Source
iDigBio
Credit
via iDigBio
Licence
CC BY-NC-ND
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

No 3D scan of Seraphs 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 itSeraphsidae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Montfort 1810)