Spirorbis

Spirorbis is a genus of very small polychaete worms, usually with a white coiled shell. Members of the genus live in the lower littoral and sublittoral zones of rocky shores. Spirorbis worms usually live attached to seaweeds, but some species live directly on rocks, shells or other hard substrates. Spirorbis was once thought to have a fossil record extending back into the Early Paleozoic, but now all pre-Bathonian spirorbins are known to be microconchids. The earliest members of genus appeared in the Miocene, but Oligocene finds may also be possible. The genus contains the following species:Spirorbis corallinae De Silva and Knight-jones, 1962 Spirorbis cuneatus Gee, 1964 Spirorbis granulatus Spirorbis incongruus Spirorbis inornatus L'hardy and Quievreux, 1962 Spirorbis knightjonesi Desilva, 1965 Spirorbis lineatus Spirorbis marioni (Caullery and Mesnil, 1897) Spirorbis medius Spirorbis moerchi Spirorbis nakamurai Spirorbis quadrangularis Spirorbis quasimilitaris Bailey, 1970 Spirorbis rupestris Gee and Knight-jones, 1962 Spirorbis semidentatus Spirorbis similis Spirorbis spirorbis (Linnaeus, 1758) Spirorbis steueri Sterzinger, 1909 Spirorbis tridentata Levinsen, 1883 Spirorbis variabilis Spirorbis violaceus

Spirorbis

Paul Adams · 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
SerpulidaePBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB
Life habit
epifaunalPBDB
Motility
stationary, attached, epibiontPBDB

Time the record covers

At least 477 million years on record.

The record covers at least 477.1 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 486.4 Mya to 0 Mya.

Cambrian — about 0 of 330 occurrencesOrdovician — about 8 of 330 occurrencesOrdovicianSilurian — about 35 of 330 occurrencesDevonian — about 79 of 330 occurrencesDevonianCarboniferous — about 64 of 330 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 50 of 330 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 12 of 330 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 20 of 330 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 7 of 330 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 0 of 330 occurrencesMiddle Jurassic — about 0 of 330 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 3 of 330 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 1 of 330 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 6 of 330 occurrencesPaleocene — about 2 of 330 occurrencesEocene — about 6 of 330 occurrencesOligocene — about 2 of 330 occurrencesMiocene — about 9 of 330 occurrencesPliocene — about 1 of 330 occurrencesPleistocene — about 22 of 330 occurrences496–480 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences480–463 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences463–447 Mya — about 6 occurrences447–430 Mya — about 15 occurrences430–413 Mya — about 26 occurrences413–397 Mya — about 6 occurrences397–380 Mya — about 29 occurrences380–364 Mya — about 29 occurrences364–347 Mya — about 14 occurrences347–331 Mya — about 36 occurrences331–314 Mya — about 14 occurrences314–298 Mya — about 12 occurrences298–281 Mya — about 17 occurrences281–265 Mya — about 12 occurrences265–248 Mya — about 32 occurrences248–232 Mya — about 21 occurrences232–215 Mya — about 3 occurrences215–198 Mya — about 4 occurrences165–149 Mya — about 3 occurrences149–132 Mya — about 1 occurrence116–99 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences99–83 Mya — about 5 occurrences83–66 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences66–50 Mya — about 4 occurrences50–33 Mya — about 5 occurrences33–17 Mya — about 4 occurrences17–0 Mya — about 33 occurrences477.1 Mya11.7 ka496 Mya0 Mya

330 occurrences of Spirorbis on record, most of them in the Devonian. 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

330 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

119 formations

Waterways — 58.00°N, 112.72°WBangor Limestone — 34.52°N, 87.58°WBangor Limestone — 34.59°N, 87.63°WQingyan — 26.33°N, 106.68°ELoray — 39.21°N, 114.97°WLoray — 39.01°N, 114.88°WLoray — 39.65°N, 115.32°WSilica — 41.72°N, 83.72°WSilica — 41.12°N, 84.85°WEdwardsville — 39.75°N, 86.67°WEdwardsville — 39.00°N, 86.33°WSecond Abden Shale — 56.07°N, 3.17°WOverton — 52.48°N, 2.63°WPequop — 40.23°N, 115.16°WWaldron Shale — 39.45°N, 85.67°WWaldron Shale — 39.44°N, 85.64°WWordie Creek — 73.00°N, 23.00°WWordie Creek — 71.73°N, 22.87°WWordie Creek — 71.68°N, 22.75°WWordie Creek — 74.02°N, 21.59°WSelscheid — 51.17°N, 7.92°ESelscheid — 51.23°N, 7.82°ESelscheid — 51.23°N, 7.97°EFord — 54.97°N, 1.37°WFord — 54.89°N, 1.41°WHeath — 46.86°N, 109.26°WHeath — 46.92°N, 109.09°WHeath — 46.79°N, 108.87°WLouisiana Limestone — 39.69°N, 91.63°WLouisiana Limestone — 39.45°N, 91.05°WLouisiana Limestone — 39.37°N, 90.90°WEke Beds — 57.17°N, 18.38°EWerfen — 46.38°N, 11.85°EWerfen — 46.30°N, 11.80°ELa Pasada — 35.67°N, 105.28°WDakota — 36.02°N, 111.05°WDakota — 35.99°N, 111.94°WFeixianguan — 28.10°N, 105.04°EFeixianguan — 29.91°N, 106.52°EFeixianguan — 29.49°N, 106.40°EMulege — 27.07°N, 111.97°WMulege — 27.05°N, 111.97°WMcCloud Limestone — 40.94°N, 122.24°WFairview — 39.00°N, 84.00°WRochester Shale — 43.15°N, 77.62°WRochester Shale — 43.10°N, 79.06°W

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The named rock units Spirorbis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 95 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 77 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Spirorbis and its relatives

Devonian

Where Spirorbis and its relatives were recorded in the Devonian.

Found in the same rock

3,062 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 297 sites for Spirorbis, and this reads 240 of them. Of that, one read hit the database's own return limit, so every count below is a floor rather than a total. 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

143 references

Each of the 330 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. 131 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 Spirorbis

Credit
Paul Adams
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Spirorbis 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 itSerpulidae through timeFormations of the DevonianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Daudin 1800