Spisula parilis

via iDigBio · CC0 · 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
- SpisulaPBDB
- Diet
- suspension feederPBDB, for Spisula
- Life habit
- infaunalPBDB, for Spisula
- Motility
- facultatively mobilePBDB, for Spisula
- Vision
- blindPBDB, for Bivalvia
Time the record covers
At least 7 million years on record.
The record covers at least 48.07 Mya to 41.03 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 37.71 Mya.
34 occurrences of Spisula parilis 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
34 occurrences- Eocene100%
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
7 formations
- Gosport Sand Formation · Claiborne Group11
- Lisbon Formation · Claiborne Group7
- Hatchetigbee Bluff Formation · Wilcox Group7
- Nanjemoy Formation4
- Sabinetown Bluff Formation · Wilcox Group2
- Cook Mountain Formation · Claiborne Group2
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The named rock units Spisula parilis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.
Spisula parilis and its relatives
EoceneWhere Spisula parilis and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.
Found in the same rock
566 taxa- Calyptraphorus velatus17 sites
- Diplodonta (Diplodonta) ungulina16 sites
- Callista (Callista) perovata15 sites
- Glycymeris trigonella15 sites
- Ancilla staminea14 sites
- Barbatia (Plagiarca) rhomboidella14 sites
- Mesalia vetusta14 sites
- Retusa galba14 sites
- Neverita limula13 sites
- Nucula (Nucula) ovula13 sites
- Pseudoliva vetusta13 sites
- Athleta petrosa12 sites
- Cadulus12 sites
- Callista12 sites
- Turritella12 sites
- Bivalvia11 sites
- Bullata semen11 sites
- Calorhadia bella11 sites
- Calyptraea (Trochita) aperta11 sites
- Crepidula lirata11 sites
- Gastropoda11 sites
- Glycymeris idonea11 sites
- Haustator carinata11 sites
- Linga (Cavilinga) pomilia11 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 26 sites for Spisula parilis, 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
8 references- Ecological control of evolutionary rates in Paleocene - Eocene marine molluscs12
- Effects of sampling on paleoecologic and taphonomic analyses in high-diversity fossil accumulations: an example from the Eocene Gosport Sand, Alabama6
- Catalogue of the Paleocene and Eocene mollusca of the southern and eastern United States. Part 1. Pelecypoda, Amphineura, Pteropoda, Scaphopoda and Cephalopoda5
- Resilience of marine invertebrate communities during the early Cenozoic hyperthermals3
- Pelecypoda of the St. Maurice and Claiborne stages3
- Environmental and biological controls on the diversity and ecology of Late Cretaceous through early Paleogene marine ecosystems in the US Gulf Coastal Plain2
- Stratigraphic Distribution of Paleocene and Eocene Fossils in the Eastern Gulf Coast Region2
- Lower Eocene Faunal Units of Lousiana1
Each of the 34 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 Spisula parilis
- Source
- iDigBio
- Credit
- via iDigBio
- Licence
- CC0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Spisula parilis 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.
This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.
Keep going
What may have been alongside itSpisula through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Conrad 1833