Sphaeromatidae

Sphaeromatidae, the seapills, is a family of isopods, often encountered on rocky shores and in shelf waters in temperate zones. The family includes almost 100 genera and 619 known marine species. Within these genera, there are groups that share distinctive morphologies; further research may reclassify these genus-groups as separate families.

Sphaeromatidae

(c) Saryu Mae 前 朝琉, some rights reserved (CC BY) · 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
SphaeromatoideaPBDB
Diet
omnivorePBDB, for Malacostraca
Life habit
epifaunalPBDB, for Malacostraca
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Malacostraca
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Malacostraca

Time the record covers

At least 159 million years on record.

The record covers at least 165.3 Mya to 5.333 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 170.9 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Middle Jurassic — about 1 of 12 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 0 of 12 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 3 of 12 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 0 of 12 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 12 occurrencesEocene — about 5 of 12 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 1 of 12 occurrencesMiocene — about 1 of 12 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 12 occurrencesPleistocene — about 0 of 12 occurrences174–169 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences169–163 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences145–139 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences139–134 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences134–128 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences128–122 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences122–116 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences116–110 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences110–105 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences105–99 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences99–93 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences93–87 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences87–81 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences81–76 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences76–70 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences70–64 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences64–58 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences58–52 Mya — about 1 occurrence52–46 Mya — about 1 occurrence46–41 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences41–35 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences35–29 Mya — about 1 occurrence29–23 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences23–17 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences17–12 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences12–5.8 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences5.8–0 Mya — about 1 occurrence165.3 Mya5.333 Mya174 Mya0 Mya

12 occurrences of Sphaeromatidae on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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

12 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

Sierra Madre — 16.68°N, 93.46°WAshawaq — 17.00°N, 53.00°EFruitvale — 35.24°N, 118.86°WTlayúa — 18.59°N, 97.90°W

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The named rock units Sphaeromatidae 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.

Sphaeromatidae and its relatives

Eocene

Where Sphaeromatidae and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

290 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 10 sites for Sphaeromatidae, 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

10 references

Each of the 12 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 Sphaeromatidae

Credit
(c) Saryu Mae 前 朝琉, some rights reserved (CC BY)
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Sphaeromatidae 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 itSphaeromatoidea through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Latreille 1825