Spheniopsis

Spheniopsis is a genus of bivalves in the family Spheniopsidae which currently consists of five species. Species such as S. brasiliensis live in the western Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Brazil at depths of 17–148 meters. Bivalves in this genus are part of the order Anomalodesmata, also known as septibranchs, which are carnivorous clams.

Spheniopsis

Manuel CABALLER · CC BY 4.0 · via Wikidata/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
SpheniopsidaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Cuspidarioidea
Life habit
infaunalPBDB, for Cuspidarioidea
Motility
facultatively mobilePBDB, for Cuspidarioidea
Vision
blindPBDB, for Bivalvia

Time the record covers

At least 28 million years on record.

The record covers at least 33.9 Mya to 5.333 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 37.71 Mya to 3.6 Mya.

Eocene — about 1 of 18 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 13 of 18 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 3 of 18 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 18 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences37–36 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences36–35 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences35–34 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences34–32 Mya — about 2 occurrences32–31 Mya — about 2 occurrences31–30 Mya — about 2 occurrences30–29 Mya — about 2 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 2 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 1 occurrence27–25 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences21–19 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences6.5–5.3 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.3–4.1 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences4.1–2.9 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences33.9 Mya5.333 Mya38.4 Mya2.9 Mya

18 occurrences of Spheniopsis on record, most of them in the Oligocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. 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

18 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

8 formations

Red Bluff — 30.98°N, 88.73°WRed Bluff — 31.66°N, 88.66°WChipola — 30.44°N, 85.19°WMint Spring — 31.97°N, 89.50°WMint Spring — 31.98°N, 89.42°WByram — 32.18°N, 90.25°WYazoo — 32.47°N, 90.29°WBrejning Clay — 56.17°N, 9.75°EVejle Fjord — 55.18°N, 11.88°ELillo — 51.25°N, 4.28°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Spheniopsis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Spheniopsis and its relatives

Oligocene

Where Spheniopsis and its relatives were recorded in the Oligocene.

Found in the same rock

664 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 17 sites for Spheniopsis, 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

7 references

Each of the 18 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 Spheniopsis

Credit
Manuel CABALLER
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Spheniopsis 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 itSpheniopsidae through timeFormations of the OligoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0.